Children’s mental health care lacking in migrant detention centers, study finds
Children in migrant detention centers run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are not receiving adequate screening, diagnosis, and treatment for mental health conditions, according to a study co-authored by experts from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The study was published March 3 in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas. Harvard Chan co-authors included Dennis Kunichoff, Margaret Sullivan, and Vasileia Digidiki, all from the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights.
The researchers worked with RAICES, a nonprofit that provides legal services to asylum seekers and migrants in immigration facilities, to analyze the medical records of 165 child migrants detained in the ICE-run Karnes Family Detention Facility between June 2018 and October 2020. They found a variety of inadequacies in mental health care at the facility. For example, staff used a non-validated mental health screening tool, which is considered below the standard of care for pediatric practices in the U.S. In addition, of the 165 children screened, only two (1% of the group) were identified as having any sort of mental distress, although it’s known that, among migrant children in the U.S., typically 15-20% are reported to have symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSD.
According to the researchers, the study suggests the need for a more appropriate screening tool.
“Our findings provide evidence of limited access to timely, age-appropriate and quality mental health screening, case management, and care,” they wrote. “Without the necessary resources to identify and address trauma, these children are at risk for long-lasting physiologic and psychological stress and developmental delays.”
The researchers called for holding ICE accountable to the standards of care for migrant children set by U.S. and international law. They offered a series of recommendations to help meet these standards, such as minimizing the time children spend in detention, enhancing and enforcing legal oversight over migrant children’s right to adequate mental health care, and expanding Department of Homeland Security officers’ mission—currently focused on security—to include the health and safety of the children in their custody.
Their ultimate recommendation, however, was to stop detaining migrant children altogether. “To meet our commitment to protect children,” the researchers wrote, “we advocate for the end of child migrant detention and the assignment of their protection to an agency adequately equipped to meet the needs of these children.”
Read the study: Approaching pediatric mental health screening and care in immigration detention
