During the most recent policy of immigrant family separation, more than 2,500 migrant children have been separated from their parents as they entered the United States — parents being referred to prosecution and children being turned over to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
This current crisis has led many people to think about the traumatic, long-term impacts family separation has on immigrant children as they cross the border. The truth is that although this policy of mass separation may have seemed sudden, family separation has always taken many forms during the migration process.
Oftentimes, migrating families find themselves in separate countries, whether it be because some family members choose to fare the journey first as others wait or because families are forcibly separated due to deportation. With long-term or temporary separation comes the possibility of that experience becoming traumatic for children.
Children are at a high risk of experiencing trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) before, during, and after migration — but family separation increases this risk. No child is “too young” to remember the harmful experiences of migration, including being separated from their parents.
Studies have shown that toxic stress in early childhood can lead to lifelong mental health problems. Children coping with trauma, such as family separation, are at a higher risk of depression, anxiety, substance use, and suicidality as they grow older. Immigration detention allows for these experiences to become even more persistent.
Migration-related family separation, especially between a mother and child, has been recognized as having negative psychological impacts on both children and parents that persist even after they’ve been reunited. Untreated trauma is a large concern for children, who tend to repress their distress after a traumatic experience. Delayed PTSD can develop within these individuals and leads to the manifestation of PTSD symptoms long after a traumatic experience.
It’s important to not only care for the families who are experiencing separation at the border now, but for all immigrant families who have experienced trauma. For some familias though, mental health treatment hasn’t been their priority after a traumatic immigration experience. That’s where we want to help.
Support is available for Latino immigrant families right here in the Triangle. El Futuro is a local, trusted organization that takes cares of children and familias who have endured a variety of immigration experiences, including those who have been affected by the most recent crisis at the border. Besides the current crisis, there are other immigration policies, such as Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), that have affected the immigrant community and families we serve.
El Futuro provides trauma-focused care in the form of individual, family, and group treatments. Through the use of evidence-based approaches with strong outcomes, El Futuro works to nurture stronger familias to live out their dreams and feel whole again.
When we last surveyed our clients two years ago, 54 percent had come to our community as unaccompanied minors — a journey usually filled with traumatic experiences, including family separation. The majority of El Futuro clients struggle with trauma symptoms, with primary diagnoses of Major Depressive Disorder, Anxiety Disorders such as PTSD, and Substance Use Disorder.
The good news is that effective treatments are available to help children and families heal from these painful events.
“Fortunately, we’re learning more and more about trauma-informed approaches that really do help people recover from these traumatic events. We’ve seen the difference right here at El Futuro since implementing Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) as treatment approaches,” said Molly Hayes, MEd, LPCS, Manager of Clinical Programs at El Futuro.
Molly adds, “Just this month I celebrated with a client who has struggled with trauma symptoms related to his migration experience for many years. After completing a course of CPT, he is now more hopeful for the future than ever before. He’s able to talk about bad experiences as really terrible things that happened, but not things that define who he is. He knows he has a life and a future outside of those experiences. And in fact, he is no longer struggling with the trauma symptoms that he struggled with for so many years.”
If you know of families struggling with the impacts of separation who could benefit from additional support, connect with our services or refer someone to our clinics here.
Alvely Alcántara, LCSW
Rossy C. Garcia, MEd 
Katy Sims, MD 
Everardo Aviles, LCSW, LCAS (Eve)
As a medical anthropologist and social work researcher, Dr. Gulbas’ research embodies interdisciplinarity through the integration of applied theories of health and human development with qualitative and ethnographic methodologies. Her work seeks to understand how people—children, families, and providers—navigate complex sociocultural landscapes in the pursuit of mental health. Most of her work, to date, focuses attention on developing more robust interpretations of suicide risk. With funding from the National Institutes of Mental Health, this body of research has contributed to advancements in theoretical and empirical knowledge of the broader contexts within which youth suicide risk is situated. 
R. Gabriela Barajas-Gonzalez is a developmental psychologist and an assistant professor of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Dr. Barajas-Gonzalez is the principal investigator of a study that examines the impact of immigration-related threat and stress on school communities. She earned a PhD in developmental psychology from Columbia University and hold a BA in human biology from Stanford University. Dr. Barajas-Gonzalez is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and a first gen college student.
Dr. Parra-Cardona is an Associate Professor in the Steve Hicks School of Social Work (SHSSW) at the University of Texas at Austin. At the SHSSW, he serves as Coordinator for Mexico and Latin American initiatives. He also serves as Area Director for Research at the UT Austin Latino Research Institute. Dr. Parra-Cardona’s program of research is focused on the cultural adaptation of evidence-based parenting interventions for low-income Latinx populations in the US and Latin America.
Bianka Reese, PhD, MSPH is a research scientist and program evaluator specializing in adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health. Her previous research in the experiences of Latinx LGBTQ+ youth stems from her work as the Research and Evaluation Manager at SHIFT NC (Sexual Initiatives For Teens), where she led largescale evaluations of multilevel, community-based sexual health promotion initiatives and research projects aimed at elevating the voices of diverse youth in North Carolina. Dr. Reese is currently the Senior Research Strategist at Creative Research Solutions, LLC, an award-winning national evaluation, research, and assessment firm.
Tania Connaughton-Espino, MPH is an independent researcher focused on adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health. Her interest in the experiences of Latinx LGBTQ+ youth stems from her previous work with SHIFT NC (Sexual Initiatives For Teens), where she led the training and evaluation department, conducted capacity-building workshops for youth serving professionals including on the topic of how to be more affirming of LGBTQ youth, and from her extensive experience working with the Latinx population in NC.
Maru Gonzalez, EdD is an Assistant Professor and Youth Development Specialist in the Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences at North Carolina State University. Her areas of inquiry include youth development with a focus on activism, social justice, and the experiences of LGBTQ+ young people across familial, school, and community contexts. 
Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas, PhD
Hector Y. Adames, PsyD