Addressing the Devastating Effects of Childhood Trauma
Dr. Ernestine Briggs-King has witnessed some of the toughest, darkest situations faced by children and families, and still sees hope. “Baltimore and Maryland have no shortage of trauma,” Dr. Briggs-King says. “As a clinical community psychologist, I am extremely excited about the potential of leveraging what we know about trauma-informed care, research and data science to truly impact children, families and communities to break the cycle of trauma.” Numerous factors exacerbate childhood trauma: Abuse in all forms. Domestic and community violence. Poverty. Intellectual and development disability. Most striking, Dr. Briggs-King says, is “the tremendous amount of grief and loss our children and families have experienced.” Left untreated, childhood trauma can contribute to emotional and physical conditions, including anxiety, depression, PTSD, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, substance use disorders and heart disease, and can have long-lasting effects on the child’s education and life.
Creating Life-Changing, More Equitable Care
Dr. Briggs-King’s national expertise in researching child maltreatment and child traumatic stress heralds a new chapter for Kennedy Krieger’s Family and Community Interventions’ four decades of innovative trauma-informed care. Her research and work are creating new interventions and treatment for children—especially children of color—who have experienced trauma to become happy, healthy, more resilient adults.
Trauma of all kinds disproportionally affects communities of color. Through her trauma work across the U.S., Dr. Briggs-King notes that these communities have less access to many of the evidence-based interventions that help people heal and recover from trauma like physical and sexual abuse, medical trauma or race-based trauma.
“There are barriers, policies and practices that have been institutionalized that get in the way of equitable care,” Dr. Briggs-King says. “We are focused on making sure that we remove those barriers to high-quality and effective care and get folks what they need. If we can do that, trauma is treatable and, in many cases, preventable.”
Her work also centers on trauma resulting from our planet’s frequent natural disasters, like floods, wildfires or earthquakes. “When disasters occur, communities of color are disproportionately impacted in terms of deaths, injuries and loss of property and employment,” she adds. “People of color and those with limited resources tend to live in neighborhoods with limited infrastructure to protect them, so when they lose, they often lose everything.
Breaking the Cycle of Childhood Trauma
Dr. Briggs-King’s goal is to break the cycles of trauma and abuse for thousands more children and families. With funding for an endowed chair, she can lead trauma-informed care into new, needed services and initiatives, broadening Kennedy Krieger’s reach in Maryland and across the nation and world.
These include a range of trauma-informed services and initiatives through the outpatient Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress (CCFTS). Children and adolescents (birth to 21) and families who have experienced or may be at risk for trauma and community violence receive needed mental health evaluation and cutting-edge interventions.
Our Therapeutic Foster Care Program offers family-based services for children with special needs who are at risk for institutional placement, and trains foster and adoptive parents to provide safe, stable, healthy homes for children in their care.
As a regional center for practicum and internship students’ postdoctoral training, CCFTS trains a new generation of national experts in trauma-informed care, which is critical to addressing the national shortage of mental health clinicians and community caregivers. Pioneering research spans neurobiology to social policy, including mental health assessment and treatment outcomes, brain imaging and genetic and environmental factors (e.g., trauma, social supports) that promote risk and resilience.
Funding an endowed chair in her name:
- Deepens trauma-informed care training for Kennedy Krieger trainees, interns, fellows and supervisors to understand how adversity and trauma impact clinical care
- Furthers research opportunities to develop creative interventions around trauma and promote health, wellbeing and resiliency in children, families and communities affected by trauma
- Creates new and expanded community partnerships to educate first responders, teachers, guidance counselors, religious leaders, juvenile justice personnel, healthcare workers and community program leaders about trauma and its impact
- Provides evidence-based Kennedy Krieger and national resources to help deploy assistance to communities in need on school shootings and other traumatic events
We give families the tools they need to heal and hope that they can really change their circumstances and lives. For children, the possibilities that hope brings are incredibly powerful and transformative.” – Dr. Briggs-King