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The number of immigrant children traveling to the United States without a parent or guardian reached a record high last year, with nearly 130,000 ending up in federal shelter after crossing the border alone.
During the same period, 19,071 unaccompanied immigrant children were released from federal shelters to relatives or sponsors in Texas while immigration cases moved through the U.S. legal system.
A new report released this week by the Migration Policy Institute and the American Academy of Pediatrics looks at the health care obstacles these children face after being released to their families and how those obstacles are preventing them from succeeding in the United States. are being investigated in detail. Utilizing visits to Los Angeles, New Orleans, Houston and interviews with over 100 providers and the children themselves.
“Because unaccompanied children will be in the United States for several years and eventually remain in the United States forever, we can benefit the broader society by ensuring they are healthy, protected, and able to contribute to their communities. ,” at the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Since fiscal 2012, more than 600,000 immigrant children have come to the United States alone. Many flee poverty and violence in Central American countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Once here, they are taken to a federal shelter where they receive medical care. However, once children are released to relatives and sponsors, language barriers, lack of health insurance in most states, and lack of knowledge of the American health care system hinder access to health care, including mental health care. It becomes very difficult.
Karla Fredericks, Director of the Immigrant and Refugee Children’s Health Program at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston and co-author of the Unaccompanied Children Report, said that traditional medicine in the United States based on brick-and-mortar facilities The structure and being open during normal working hours do not help meet the needs of undocumented children.
“Most unaccompanied children enroll immediately after leaving the Refugee Resettlement Office, so school-based clinics can play an important role here. Many don’t have these options in languages other than English,” says Fredricks. “This means a delayed cognitive and developmental assessment of students.”
According to the report, only about a dozen states offer health insurance to immigrant children, and health care by schools and community organizations is limited.
Most unaccompanied children are physically healthy upon arrival but are likely to have experienced trauma during the trip and are in need of mental health services. There are too few health care providers who speak the language of
Jonathan Beyer, a policy analyst at the Institute for Immigration Policy, said: “There are not enough clinicians to provide culturally appropriate trauma-informed services in the preferred language of children and sponsors.
This means that children who cross the border into the United States are often unable to explain their diagnosis to medical professionals.
“Clinicians who cannot read medical records in the child’s native language are less likely to have a more comprehensive understanding of the medical services the child received prior to arrival in the United States, and a certified medical translation of the document is not available.” can be difficult to obtain,” said the report.
The mental health care workforce in Texas lacks diversity. A survey conducted earlier this year by a state licensing agency identified more than 80% of the 5,599 licensed behavioral health care providers who responded as white, and 20% of the 5,371 providers who responded We found that less than 100 had provided mental or behavioral health services in a language other than English. .
The report suggests that more money will be spent training mental health clinicians who have the same language and cultural background as children.
Beier said policies and funding can improve access for unaccompanied children to essential health services, including mental health. But policy makers need to keep individual circumstances in mind, he said. For example, not all unenrolled children speak Spanish, as there are many indigenous languages in Latin America.
The report also said community health facilities and programs could set up clinics in schools or provide mobile health options so families of people who take on children of illegal employment can get medical care without missing work. It suggests that you
“Every child has the right to reach their full potential and maximize their physical, mental and emotional health,” said Fredricks. “Implementation of these recommendations will help ensure that unaccompanied children have the same opportunities as other children in the United States, not only for them, but for the families, schools, It will also bring great benefits to the community.”
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