hello I'm dr. Lauren Caldwell the director of the children news in
families office at the American Psychological Association and I'm happy
to welcome dr. Arthur Evans jr. the APA CEO to talk about mental health
awareness month and children's mental health awareness day thank you for
joining me today dr. Evans thank you I'm glad to be here this year the theme for
national children's mental health awareness day is partnering for health
and hope following trauma we hear the term trauma traumatic he
experiences a lot can you say something about what that means
sure trauma is just an event that we experience or person experiences where
we feel intensely threatened often that can be feeling that where our life is in
danger or that we're going to experience severe bodily harm those are that
generally what we mean when we talk about trauma and how widespread is
childhood trauma well unfortunately trauma is pretty widespread about half
of American children will experience some kind of traumatic event but we also
know that certain children are at more risk for developing or experiencing
traumatic events children who live in poverty for example children who are
from the LGBTQ community children military families these are some of the
high risk categories and it's important to understand what those categories are
and to make sure that we have strategies in place to identify kids who are at
greater risk and to get them screened and connected to treatments if they need
it what happens to a child who experiences trauma well children who
experience trauma can experience both intense emotional reactions and/or
intense physical reactions so maybe heart-pounding feeling anxious feeling
terror all of those are emotions and feelings that might accompany a child
who has experienced experienced trauma I think the important thing to remember
though is that most children who experience traumatic events are going to
do fine they're going to get over that event but we know that a certain number
of children aren't going to be fine and it's important in those cases to connect
those children to evidence treatments sure and what can
psychologists do to help well I think there are a lot of things that
psychologists can do first of all I think it's important to be trained in
trauma treatments and to get training in evidence-based trauma treatments
secondly to make sure that we are screening children for traumatic stress
and identifying those kids who are screening positively and connecting them
to services I think it's important for psychologists to consult with child
serving organizations and systems to help them become more trauma-informed
and to help them address and identify children who are experiencing trauma so
I think there are a variety things that that psychologists can do and I'm hoping
that more of our psychologists are going to be engaged in trying to help children
through these kinds of traumatic events so it sounds like there's a real role
for training there one of the assumptions that people make is that
just because you're a mental health professional that you know how to treat
trauma I think of it more alike specializing in cardiology just because
you're a physician doesn't necessarily mean you know how to do heart surgery
anyway so it's important for mental health professionals to have the
training and then to make sure that they are putting themselves in a position
where they can actually deliver those specific services May 10th is national
children's mental health awareness day and the Samsa live event will focus on
this theme of partnering for health and hope following trauma I know you will be
participating in that town hall event which will take place at 7:00 p.m. and
will be livestream for those who would like to know more
also APA has additional resources on children and trauma and on addressing
the mental health needs for racial and ethnic minority youth you can find those
resources on our website you can also find more information about other Mental
Health Awareness Month activities in the news and events section on the APA
website dr. Evans I want to thank you for talking with me today about children
and trauma and the role of psychologists and helping to address their needs thank
you I've been delighted to be here thank you and thanks to you for watching