115 HR 1757 IH: Trauma-Informed Care for Children and Families Act of 2017 U.S. House of Representatives 2017-03-28 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

I115th CONGRESS1st SessionH. R. 1757IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESMarch 28, 2017Mr. Danny K. Davis of Illinois (for himself, Ms. Kelly of Illinois, and Mrs. Bustos) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and in addition to the Committees on Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concernedA BILLTo address the psychological, developmental, social, and emotional needs of children, youth, and families who have experienced trauma, and for other purposes.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Trauma-Informed Care for Children and Families Act of 2017.

2.

Findings

Congress makes the following findings: (1)The 2007 Great Smoky Mountains Study, a representative longitudinal study of children, found that by age 16, more than 67 percent of the children had been exposed to 1 or more traumatic events, such as child maltreatment, domestic violence, or sexual assault. (2)According to a 2009 Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention study of children ages 0 through 17, more than 60 percent of the children surveyed were exposed to violence within the past year, either directly or indirectly. (3)According to the Administration for Children and Families, the rate of substantiated reports of child maltreatment in fiscal year 2015 was 9.2 per 1,000 children ages 0 through 17, with children under age 1 having the highest rate of 24.2 per 1,000 children. (4)According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, a longitudinal study of youth detained at a juvenile detention center in Chicago showed that 92.5 percent of youth had experienced at least 1 trauma, and 84 percent had experienced more than 1 trauma. (5)The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that nearly 1 in 5 women reported having been the victim of a rape at some time during their lives. Seventy-eight percent experienced their first rape before the age of 25. (6)A 2017 study found that abuse and maltreatment suffered as a child was associated with post-traumatic stress disorder and opioid-related misuse as an adult, and recommended that trauma history and post-traumatic stress disorder symptom severity be addressed as part of opioid addiction treatment. (7)Findings from the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have shown that adverse childhood experiences predispose children towards negative trajectories from infancy through adolescence. Followup representative studies have shown the long-range impact of early trauma exposure on adult health conditions, including heart disease, asthma, and mental health. (8)According to a subsequent study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adults who had been exposed to multiple adverse childhood experiences were significantly more likely to be unemployed, to be living in poverty, and not to have graduated high school than adults who had zero adverse childhood experiences. (9)According to a 2008 finding by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, educators who work directly with traumatized children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to secondary traumatic stress, experiencing burnout, fatigue, irritability, and other symptoms, and can be supported through early recognition of that stress, self-care, and trauma-informed support systems. (10)Findings from a 2012 study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention included an estimate that the total lifetime burden of child maltreatment cases that occur each year in the United States, including medical, welfare, and criminal justice costs, is $124,000,000,000. (11)According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, only half of children ages 8 through 15 with a mental disorder had received treatment for their disorder within the past year. Children with anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder were the least likely to be treated, with only 32.2 percent having received treatment for a mental disorder in the past year. (12)According to a 2014 report of the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council of the National Academies entitled New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research, research has shown that child abuse and neglect experiences resulted in higher risk for behavioral health problems (such as depression and substance use) throughout life, but that with informed prevention approaches, child abuse and neglect can be both preventable and manageable. (13)According to a 2017 finding by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, of the children served by the Network with problems in the clinical range when entering care, 83 percent showed significant improvements in post-traumatic stress disorder, behavioral problems, or traumatic stress symptoms after receiving evidence-based treatments. (14)According to a 2008 Washington State report on prevention programs that assessed both cost and effectiveness, evidence-based, two-generational child trauma treatments such as Parent-Child Interaction Therapy return $3.64 per dollar of cost.