Separation from parents due to the parent committing a crime may be one of the most hurtful things a child experiences in their life.
There are physical effects when someone is forcibly separated from their parents or love ones. Their heart rate goes up. Their body releases a flood of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. Those stress hormones can start killing off dendrites — the little branches in brain cells that transmit messages. In time, the stress can start killing off neurons and — especially in young children — wreaking dramatic and long-term damage, both psychologically and to the physical structure of the brain.
“The effect is catastrophic,” said Charles Nelson, a pediatrics professor at Harvard Medical School. “There’s so much research on this that if people paid attention at all to the science, they would never do this”.
Children must have access to help and support groups. There are certain groups in place to allow parents who are detained to still meet their children to play and interact with them in a positive way to create a better and stronger relationship with them even though of the circumstances. Even because the adult did wrong in their life the child should not be treated like criminals as well and should be shown a better life. I employ each and every one of us to find out our children support groups in whichever country we are in.
In Trinidad we have Children’s Authority of Trinidad and Tobago. I am doing my part in assisting my school mates and friends to be a listening ear to them and sharing the information on Children help groups available to them.
Done by:
Joaquin Villafana
CORIA Trinidad and Tobago
Bibliography:
Effects of separation-
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/what-separation-fr om-parents-does-to-children-the-effect-is-catastrophic/2018/06/18/c00c30ec- 732c-11e8-805c-4b67019fcfe4_story.html
Children’s Authority of Trinidad and Tobago: https://www.ttchildren.org/services/support-to-ch ildren-and-families Convention on the rights of a child – https://www.ohchr.org/documents/professionalinterest/crc.pdf