Funding cuts to child mental healthcare are bad health and economic policy
I think there is a lot to agree with in this opinion piece:
We Must Uphold the Systems Protecting Our Children: Invest Now, Save Later
As Renée points out, childhood trauma increases the likelihood of a wide range of physical and mental health issues later in life. To the tune of trillions of dollars. The way to address those outcomes is through early interventions for kids. Often, those are available because of grants and government funding. That costs money, but it’s a better alternative to all of the costs associated with treating the long-term impacts of trauma.
The way I see it, there are three options:
- Funding for childhood interventions
- Pay more for the healthcare impacts on adults of untreated childhood trauma.
- Pay for neither and let people suffer.
Unfortunately, some seem to prefer option 3. Thus, leaving survivors of childhood trauma with little hope of healing from that trauma. That says a lot about us as a society, and none of it is good.
We should not be convinced that funding treatment we know works to save lives and alleviate unnecessary suffering is somehow wasteful. If anything, allowing children to grow up with trauma and not intervening is the true waste.
