By Julie B. Kaplow and Mark W. Kline
No infectious disease since HIV/AIDS in the 1980s has captured the world’s attention in the way COVID-19 has. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is still with us nearly 40 years later. Effective treatment has made HIV/AIDS a manageable medical condition rather than the almost certain death sentence it was in the beginning, but a vaccine still eludes us. More than 32 million people have died of HIV/AIDS since the beginning of the pandemic, including about 700,000 Americans. Children were almost an afterthought in the early days of HIV/AIDS. Many children died, and even more suffered emotionally in response to the deaths of caregivers and relatives.
So far, it appears that children are being spared the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic from a physical health perspective, but there is no doubt that there will be lifelong mental health consequences. Proactive measures implemented now, including raising awareness regarding children’s trauma and grief-related responses to the pandemic, can mitigate these potentially debilitating outcomes.
Research tells us that youth who have experienced prior traumas and losses — nearly half of U.S. children — are at significantly higher risk of developing mental health problems in the face of current adversity.
Share This Post!
Exploratory Study Associates Childhood Trauma with Brain Features in Abusive Mothers
By University of Fukui As sad as it is, child maltreatment continues to be a prevalent global social issue. Recent studies have revealed that up to one billion children aged 2 [...]
SAMHSA Recognizes Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Awareness Month
By Stacey Owens, M.S.W., LCSW-C, Military and Veterans Affairs Liaison, Center for Mental Health Services Although often associated with combat veterans, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that [...]
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Cancer
By American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a type of anxiety disorder. Some people develop PTSD after experiencing a frightening or life-threatening situation. PTSD is most [...]
Childhood Trauma Impacts Muscle Function in Later Life
By Morgan Sherburne – University of Michigan Adverse childhood experiences can detrimentally affect muscle function in older adults by impairing mitochondrial activity necessary for energy production. The study analyzed muscle biopsies from [...]
The True Link Between Early Trauma and Adult Mental Health
By David Rettew M.D., ABCs of Child Psychiatry The last decade of the 1990s was often labeled the “Decade of the Brain,” as many mental health clinicians and researchers emphasized biological [...]
What’s the Best Treatment for PTSD in Children?
By Joan Kaufman, PhD Joan Kaufman, PhD, of the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University, discusses the different stages of trauma-focused cognitive behavior therapy, or TF-CBT, the best evidence-based intervention for children who [...]