Diagnosing Trauma in Children

Effects of Trauma

Part 1

Executive Summary

The Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) seeks to change the lives of children facing adversity for the better. They serve youths from age 5 to young adults across the 50 states facing adversity, and BBBSA aims to stem juvenile delinquency in America. The organization serves youths by offering mentorship matches of Little’s and Big’s. Through mentorship, the organization aims to offer the youth an opportunity to rise above their current situations and become productive community members. BBBSA is also involved in policy advocacy, where the organization focuses on eliminating racial discrimination in its workplace and society.

Discrimination is rampant in the United States, and the organization tries to overcome it by using a diversity and inclusion policy implemented across all its agencies. The policy ensures that employees are treated with the utmost respect. They also treat clients and donors with the same respect regardless of race, color, religion, sexual orientation, or gender. The other problem is education inequity experienced in the United States. The education system is skewed and favors those from affluent areas. Children and youths from low-income areas have dilapidated classrooms, and they lack educational resources to assist them in their study journey.

It was established that there is a discrepancy in the funding of schools. The results indicate some schools struggle to offer services to students due to a lack of funds. Schools in low-income areas receive less funding, making it hard to meet their operational needs. Recommendations are made to push for changes in the funding of schools to eliminate the reliance on property tax. The use of property tax means schools in low-income areas will receive less funding since the tax collected is low. Therefore, there is a need to substitute the funds through federal government contributions or create an education pool that equally funds all schools in the United States. Eliminating discrimination should begin at the school level by ensuring that all schools receive similar funding regardless of where the school is located.

Introduction

The Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) seeks to change the lives of children facing adversity for the better. They serve youths from age 5 to young adults across the 50 states facing adversity, and BBBSA aims to stem juvenile delinquency in America. The organization serves youths by offering mentorship matches of Little’s and Big’s. Through mentorship, the organization aims to offer the youth an opportunity to rise above their current situations and become productive community members. BBBSA is also involved in policy advocacy, where the organization focuses on eliminating racial discrimination in its workplace and society. The organization has connected over 2 million Littles with Bigs in the past decade. The organization receives funding from the government and needs to increase its funding sources to ensure it manages to serve most of the youth who need its services.

The organization is committed to inclusivity and diversity and makes the same promise to its employees, the community, and the clients it serves. The diversity and inclusivity policy demonstrates the organization’s belief that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect regardless of their differences. The policy attempts to address the problem of differences in race, gender, ethnicity, or other things that make people different. Inclusion ensures that people feel a sense of belonging in the organization (Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, 2022a). The Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Council is responsible for implementing the diversity and inclusion policy in the organization (Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, 2022b). The council was formed in 2021, and its purpose is to support the organization’s long-standing commitment to empowering the youth.

BBBSA recognizes the challenges youth face and attempts to create better opportunities for the youth of color by offering mentors who guide and direct the youth to better opportunities. To combat systemic racism, the best strategy would be to fight education inequalities. Eliminating education inequality begins with increasing funding for schools located in black communities (Bloome et al., 2018). Removing the property tax as the source of school funding will ensure schools in low-income areas receive the same funding as those in high-income areas. The federal and state governments should develop more major resources that ensure every child gets a fair share of the pie.

Recommendation

Recommendation 1: The organization needs to increase its funding sources and reduces its weaknesses. The over-reliance on government and donor funding is a challenge for the organization since its programs can be negatively impacted if it does not meet its funding requirements. Therefore, the organization should work towards increasing its revenue sources to reduce its reliance on government and donor funds. Being an autonomous organization will assist the organization in advocating for its clients.

Recommendation 2: To reduce the competition from other similar organizations, BBBSA should look at diversifying its clients’ offerings. With a focus on majority Black youth, the organization limits its services and makes it look like it works mainly with the racial minority.

Recommendation 3: The organization should implement an evaluation that uses metrics to measure the performance of the policy. All policies should be measured to assess their effectiveness. Therefore, using a performance measurement with set targets, the organization can conduct annual analysis and measurements to see if the policy is bringing the results expected (Worth, 2020). Performance measurement should include aspects that focus on clients (youths) and other stakeholders.

Recommendation 4: Eliminating property tax as the source of school funding will ensure schools in low-income areas receive the same funding as those in high-income areas. There should be a way to ensure all schools receive equal funding. Without equal funding, schools in low-income areas will struggle and not have the necessary resources to achieve their goals.

Recommendation 5: Provision of books for low-income families to expose their children to reading early. Exposing children to books and not television ensures children begin learning early, and they can develop a reading culture early. Exposure to books gives children the best foundation for learning, and they have a head start in their studies.

Recommendation 6: To combat systemic racism, we need to take aggressive action to address policies, structures, and practices that contribute to the wealth gap, health disparities, and educational inequalities. BBBSA needs to push for policies that eradicate systemic racial discrimination. The policies should target changes that address not only the organization but also the country (Johnson et al., 2020). The biggest challenge is the decades or even centuries-long systemic discrimination that has taken place in the United States.

References

Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. (2022a). BBSA. https://www.bbbs.org/

Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. (2022b). Big Brothers Big Sisters of America New JEDI Council. https://www.bbbs.org/2021/10/big-brothers-big-sisters-of-america-new-jedi-council/

Bloome, D., Dyer, S., & Zhou, X. (2018). Educational inequality, educational expansion, and intergenerational income persistence in the United States. American Sociological Review, 83(6), 1215-1253. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122418809374

Johnson, V., Ellis, R. S., & Hutcherson, V. (2020). Evaluating a strategy for implementation and sustainability of school?based health centers in 3 disparate communities. Journal of School Health, 90(4), 286-294. https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.12875

Worth, M. J. (2020). Nonprofit management: Principles and practice (6th ed.). Sage.

Part 2

Reaction about the article

Victim accompaniment has been proven to be effective in assisting and supporting victims when giving out testimony on human rights violations (New Tactics in Human Rights, n.d.). The use of accompaniment volunteers provided the victims with emotional and psychological support to address their re-traumatization. The commission recognized the importance of supporting and assisting the victims when giving out their testimonies. Without the support, most victims would have found it challenging to come forward and give their testimony. After giving their testimony, they would have no support for processing and dealing with the re-traumatization they experience by recalling the events of the trauma. There was a considerable number of people who came out and gave testimony. The vast number can be attributed to the accompaniment process, demonstrating the importance of supporting and guiding the victims before and after presenting their testimony. Reliving the trauma can be overwhelming for some people, and without the support, they might find it hard to state or speak about what they experienced.

We should seek ways of using the accompaniment process for minors and other traumatized individuals to assist them when giving testimony. The accompaniment process will assist the testifiers in avoiding secondary trauma when testifying (New Tactics in Human Rights, n.d.). The avoidance will empower the victims to speak about their trauma, which might be helpful in processing and living with the trauma. The article demonstrates that we should be mindful of the victims we push to give testimony. From the victim’s perspective, they are forced to relive the trauma and recall information about what transpired, leaving them susceptible to re-traumatization. However, the victim can be supported with assistance and guidance before and after the testimony process. Community involvement allowed the victims to speak with others who experienced the same trauma. According to New Tactics in Human Rights (n.d.) the process used to support the victims ensured they had someone with them in all the steps of their testimony making. We might overlook the importance of accompaniment support, but it is the rock they need for the people giving the testimony.

Part 3

1. Putting on your cultural lens, what are some of the reasons you might be seeing the symptoms that Ibrahim is presenting?

The first reason for the symptoms presented by Ibrahim could be the trauma he suffered when the children were involved in the accident. Ibrahim is the firstborn, and he feels responsible for taking care of his brother and sister. When the accident happened, Ibrahim tried to keep his brother and sister close to him to protect them, but he could not reach his sister. Ibrahim had always been responsible for his siblings, and he felt he let his mother down when the accident occurred. He also blames himself for the accident because he believes it would not have happened had he not pushed for them to attend summer camp and the outings.

The second reason is the accident and his inability to move made him feel like he was dead, and an image flashed to him, reminding him of a time when they were in the refugee camp when her mother’s nephew was killed and how her mother sobbed. Ibrahim imagined how her mother would sob when she heard that her children were dead. The reminder demonstrates a traumatized child who did not receive support to manage and be taught how to handle the trauma he witnessed. The accident reminded him of how he saw his mother sobbing, and he did not want to be the cause of her sobbing again.

Lastly, the accident reminded Ibrahim of the crowded refugee camp where he was born and raised in his early years and how his mother was overly protective of him. Ibrahim’s mother kept him close all the time, even when he began walking, and he never got the independence to explore the world by himself. When the accident happened, these memories flooded Ibrahim’s mind, and he got sick when he had to get on the school bus. The reminder of what happened with the school bus accident is why Ibrahim gets agitated towards the end of the school day. Also, he tends to avoid crowded areas that remind him of life at the refugee camp, where it was always crowded.

2. What are some of the possible explanations for Ibrahim’s reactions after the bridge collapse?

Ibrahim had always felt responsible for his siblings, and he often accompanied them to and from school. The bridge collapse must have triggered traumatic memories of Ibrahim’s childhood when they lived at the refugee camp and the struggles they faced living amongst criminals. While he might have been a small child, Ibrahim’s brain was rapidly forming, and there were memory connections made of the life at the camp that was triggered when the bridge collapsed. The relocation to a new country and new lifestyle must have impacted Ibrahim. The move to the United States was positive for Ibrahim, and it would assist him later in life since he no longer lived in a refugee camp. However, the family had to move a couple more times before they settled to their current home, even after the move. The constant movement could make Ibrahim feel insecure, isolated, or angry. The bridge collapse must have triggered these feelings and could be why he kept on freezing when requested to move.

Ibrahim was shaking too much and could barely move when they were being moved out of the bus. The shaking demonstrates the freeze mode of fear, where a person is suddenly unable to move due to the fear they have experienced. Once outside the bus, there was a burning smell that triggered his memory though he could not recall what he smelt. The smell could be something he smelt when he was a child, and the current smell of something burning triggered the memory. Since Ibrahim’s mother had kept him close to her when he was a child, he might have developed strong intuition to fear, and he relied on his mother to protect him. Therefore, after the bridge collapsed, he was alone, and there was no one to protect him, causing him to experience intense fear.

3. What do you think accounts for Ibrahim’s reaction during the rescue?

His fear of people in uniform caused Ibrahim’s reaction during the rescue. When he was a child and lived in the refugee camp, his mother had always told him to fear policemen and soldiers. There was also the fear that the policemen could take them away and they would never see their mother again. When he was a child, the fear was instilled in him, and it was reinforced constantly. When he saw the men who looked like police, Ibrahim froze because he recalled what his mother had always told her about policemen and soldiers. His fear caused him to shake and cry, causing him to imagine the worst. When the policemen shouted at Ibrahim and his siblings, they worsened things. The shouting could remind him of what happened when the policemen would patrol the refugee camp and shout at people. Therefore, the shouting traumatized Ibrahim, making him uncertain if he should follow what they were suggesting or run away.

The counselor seems to have noticed Ibrahim’s hesitance and seemed to understand what could be troubling him. The counselor assisted Ibrahim in exiting the bus and following the directions of the policemen because he had been trauma trained and he could assist clients suffering from trauma. Placing his hand on Ibrahim’s back reassured him that it would be okay and allowed Ibrahim to focus on what was happening around him and not his memories. When Ibrahim hesitated to follow the policemen, the counselor put a hand on Ibrahim’s should and showed him the other children who had been taken safely to the shore. After the reassurance, he agreed to move toward the men in uniforms. The sight of the other children being taken to safer grounds and not being taken away by the men in uniform reassured him that it was safe to go with the policemen.

4. How do the core concepts of trauma inform your answers?

The core concepts assist one in seeing how inherently complex traumatic events can be for children and understanding how to spot them (NCTSN Core Curriculum on Childhood Trauma Task Force, 2012). Children could be leading everyday lives, and their trauma can be triggered by anything in their current lives. Adults always assume children cannot be traumatized, and we believe that they had forgotten what they might have experienced when they were younger. However, this is never the case because children’s brains are developing, and during their formative years, they tend to capture and recall more than what people assume. The case of Ibrahim is a clear demonstration of how traumatic events in childhood can be triggered later in life by something unrelated. The sight of the people in uniform was enough to remind Ibrahim about what his mother always told him regarding policemen and soldiers. Her mother was telling the truth based on their life at the camp, but this all changed when they moved to the United States. Therefore, Ibrahim should have been taught that police were helpful and would not take him away from his mother.