California’s first surgeon general may have the key to fostering better mental health amongst K-12 students, screen every child for trauma before entering school.
Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, who was appointed as the state’s inaugural surgeon general in January, said she believes childhood trauma can rear its ugly head in many ways, ultimately affecting a student’s brain development and health in the long term.
“It could be it shows up in tummy aches. Or it’s impulse control and behavior, and we offer a care plans,” she told NBC News, as a suggestion to acting proactively, rather than harshly and reactively.
“Instead of suspending and expelling or saying ‘What’s wrong with you? We say, ‘What happened to you?’” she said.
Her dedication to changing society’s response to childhood trauma started while she was a pediatrician at a clinic in San Francisco.
“One thing that tipped me off was the number of kids being sent to me by schools — principals, teachers and administrators — with ADHD,” Burke Harris recalled.
“What I found was that many of the kids were experiencing signs of adversity, and there seemed to be a strong association between adversity and the trauma they experienced and school functioning,” she added.
Following her discovery, Burke Harris was motivated to review the health records of her more than 700 patients. The surgeon general and her research team concluded that children who experienced adverse trauma were 32 times more likely to be diagnosed with learning and behavioral difficulties than those who had not.
In her testimony before Congress on September 11, Burke Harris says school systems play an important role in screening children.
"Educational systems have an important role to play in early detection and early intervention by collaborating and coordinating with trained health providers to ensure that children are screened for trauma and adversities and by providing interventions that are appropriate for educational settings such as school-based mental health," she said.
"The science is clear. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)are a public health crisis that require a coordinated public health response. This involves public education, routine screening to enable early detection and early intervention, and cross-sector coordinated care," she added.
As determined by a study conducted by Kaiser Permanente and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sources of trauma or ACEs include abuse, parental incarceration and divorce or parental separation.
“When we talk about the effect of ACEs on learning, part of the impact is on the child's ability to sit still in class and … be able to receive and process information,” she said. “When we are talking about addressing the root cause, science shows that safe, stable environments are healing for kids.”
Burke Harris suggests that “sleep, exercise, nutrition, mindfulness and a nurturing environment” can all contribute to reducing stress hormones and improving the brain’s ability to rebound from stress.
The surgeon general also highlighted a San Francisco pilot program during her congressional testimony, proposing students learn deep meditation as a means of coping with stress.
“Not only did they see a reduction in school suspension rates and episodes of violence, but they also saw an increase in GPA and standardized tests,” she told NBCBLK.
Burke Harris said she hopes the progress being made in San Francisco will spur a domino effect across the country and lead to changes in school policies.
“Part of treatment is recognizing that everyone in the educational environment has an opportunity to administer buffering care for kids. That's the power of a public initiative. Everyone from the superintendent to the teacher to the bus driver and the person cleaning recognizes and understands this information,” she said.
