“When I go to Europe to teach, I often am contacted by officials at the ministries of health in the Scandinavian countries, the United Kingdom, Germany, or the Netherlands and asked to spend an afternoon with them sharing the latest research on the treatment of traumatized children, adolescents and their families. The same is true for many of my colleagues. These countries have already made a commitment to universal health care ensuring a guaranteed minimum wage, paid parental leave for both parents after a child is born, and high-quality childcare for all working mothers.
Could this approach in public health have something to do with the fact that the incarceration rate in Norway 71/100,000, in the Netherlands 81/100,000 and the US 781/100,000, while the crime rate in those countries is much lower than in ours, and the cost of medical care about half? Seventy percent of prisoners in California spent time in foster care while growing up. The United Sates spends $84 billion per year to incarcerate people at approximately $44,000 per prisoner, the northern European countries a fraction of that amount. Instead, they invest in helping parents to raise their children in safe and predictable surroundings. Their academic test scores and crime rates seem to reflect the success of those investments.”
Pg: 169 “The Body Tells the Score” by Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D.
The doctors who author the DSM V refuse to acknowledge this problem as a diagnosis.
With your help maybe we can get them to see the light of their ignorance.
I'm 71 years old but I speak as one of those children. It's been a really really hard road.
