Politics and Policies: Fighting for the Health and Well-Being of Children at the Border

Colleen Kraft is clinical professor of pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, attending physician at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. An advocate for the humane treatment of migrant children at the border, Kraft’s work on the damage to young children caused by the “zero tolerance” policy, which included separation of children from parents, has helped mobilize people across the political spectrum to end this policy.

Kraft will discuss the science of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the fight for the rights and health of children throughout the world. Since a landmark 1998 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, research has confirmed the relationship between adversity in childhood and higher levels of morbidity and mortality in adulthood, and uncovered the connections between the two at molecular, behavioral, and societal levels. The devastating effects of emotional trauma and toxic stress in children are nowhere more evident than in the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Politics and Policies: Fighting for the Well-being of Children at the Southern Border PowerPoint presentation by Dr. Kraft