What Mental Health Experts Think About the Trauma Children Are Experiencing at the Border

Danny Huerta can clearly see himself as an eight-year-old, newly arrived in Minnesota from Mexico and missing his mother, who would arrive in the states three months later. "I remember getting warts all over my fingers, the fear and anxiety," he told CBN News. "At eight years old you kind of understand three months and you kind of understand you're going to meet again."

Today, Huerta is vice president of the parenting and youth department at Focus on the Family and a bi-lingual, licensed clinic social worker who's worked for years with children struggling with trauma and family separation. "Their stories are heart-wrenching. Sometimes dad or mom is suddenly gone," explained Huerta. "That's traumatizing when you go to sleep and think another parent might leave."

Huerta's young clients have dealt with parents who left for a variety of reasons including marital infidelity, addictions or suicide. "It creates a lot of fear and questioning as to the safety of the world," he said.

What's Happening to Children Separated from Their Parents on the Border?

Mental health experts and much of the American public is thinking anew about family separation in light of politics at the US-Mexico border. In recent weeks, the US government came under heavy fire for a family separation policy which removed 2,300 immigrant children from their parents, although the Trump administration says 522 have been reunited with their families.

Dr. Erynne Shatto, an assistant professor in the School of Psychology & Counseling at Regent University, explained the depth of trauma children suffer when separated from a parent or primary caregiver.

"Children's survival and sense of safety is what allows them to learn and grow properly," she told CBN News. The deep loss they experience when separated from their parent can alter their developmental trajectory. "It can activate 'fight, flight or freeze,'" she said, "and put all of the brain resources there and not where they need them – memory, motor development, learning."

Dr. Casey Call, the assistant director at the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development at Texas Christian University, says the children separated from their families at the border could be showing a variety of symptoms including aggression, withdrawal and an inability to be consoled. "I think one of the biggest consequences is not being able to trust adults, not having that felt safety," she told CBN News.  

That kind of trauma, said Call, can affect all areas of development including social, emotional and cognitive. Call says the child's age will affect how they respond, as will the process of how they were removed.

Huerta says personality also plays a huge role. "Two kids the same age could be totally different in their experience," he says. 

Shatto explains, "Some kids are going to be kind of like Teflon – no matter what circumstances you put them in they seem to find a way, and others seem to be like Jello," in that everything sticks to them.

Huerta describes the more resilient kids as "adapting, adjusting and being resourceful and in fact – developing a tremendous amount of intelligence along the way. The other children don't." He says, "They panic and freeze and it creates a stunting of their growth and intelligence because they don't know who to trust."

Long-term, experts say these children can experience physical and emotional challenges as adults. 

How to help Children at the Border

So, what's the best way to help the children at the border who are separated from their parents? Reunification is, of course, the best plan say mental health experts.

Diane Vines is a Houston-based therapist who works at The ChildTrauma Academy and has supervised therapists over the years that work with immigrant children on family separation issues. "Being unified with a family member that you know is probably the most important thing because they're scared to death," she told CBN News.

In the meantime, experts recommend that those working with these children explain honestly what is happening. "Otherwise their stories can get out-of-control," says Huerta. "It's better once we know the truth, bringing it in an age-appropriate way."

He also recommends that whoever works with these children must provide empathy. "The child will sense that," he says. "They're going to feed off the emotional climate."

Call recommends giving the children some kind of decision-making ability. "Their voice needs to be heard. They need to be given a say in some of the decisions that are being made for them and have their feelings understood," she said.

Vines says that while waiting for reunification, a phone call with their parents would be ideal.

Shatto also suggests teaching coping skills, from deep breathing to sensory activities like smelling flowers or playing with play-dough. These activities are designed to produce pleasant emotions and help children connect with the present moment.

Ultimately, no one knows the long-term impact for these children but steps can be taken to help them adapt and reframe their story.

They will also hopefully receive help from a country that's extremely concerned about their plight.

Vines says the mental health community in Houston "can't wait" to work with these children. "From what I've seen on social media," she said, "they're all asking, 'When you find out if a shelter opens let me know. I want to work with these kids," she explained.