Senseless Violence Against Central American Unaccompanied Minors: Historical Background and Call for Help

ABSTRACT

The southwestern U.S. border has recently seen a significant increase in the number of unaccompanied children from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador illegally crossing the Mexican border into the United States. Many of these children leave home to flee violence, starvation, impoverished living conditions, or other life-threatening situations. The treatment of acute stress, anxiety, and depression associated with traumatic events is crucial in helping these children address these negative psychological events they have experienced so that they can move forward with their lives. Untreated, traumatic events experienced by this population can develop into Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a potentially life-changing and physically threatening psychological and medical issue. The United States needs to effectively address the serious matter of responding to mental health issues facing refugees from war-torn or impoverished nations so as to help them to successfully adjust to American systems. There is a need for researchers in the mental health field to focus efforts in designing, implementing, and evaluating methodologies that can help these children develop healthy strategies for living with a very difficult and complex past.

KEYWORDS:

• Immigrants
• mental health
• refugees
• unaccompanied children

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cheryl B. Sawyer

Dr. Cheryl Sawyer has a broad background in education, behavioral sciences, and counseling with specific training and expertise in supporting marginalized populations with traumatization or behavioral disorders. Sawyer holds a M.S. in Behavioral Sciences from University of Houston Clear Lake and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from University of Houston. She has experience as a public school teacher and school counselor, several years experience as program director managing an acute psychiatric hospital unit for children in psychological distress and 15 years as counseling program coordinator for University of Houston-Clear Lake. Her research includes training school counselors to work with traumatized populations. Sawyer has successfully administered 6 major research/training associated projects, collaborated with other researchers, and produced several peer-reviewed publications from each project. Scholarly works include international, national, and state refereed/ non-refereed journal articles, edited book chapters, and professional conference presentations. She is also Texas State mental health coordinator and international trainer for the service providing organization, Bikers Against Child Abuse, Inc.

Judith Márquez

Dr. Judith Márquez is a Profesor of Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language (ESL) at the University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL). She is also the chair of the Department of Counseling, Special Education and Diversity. Dr. Márquez holds a PhD is in Spanish linguistics from the University of Texas in Austin. Prior to joining the UHCL faculty, she taught in the Houston Independent School District. Márquez has been co-principal investigator of six federally funded grant projects and has co-directed three of those grants. Her research interests include the preparation of bilingual and ESL teachers, Spanish for heritage speakers, and issues related to the education of English learners. Dr. Márquez also consults and provides professional development in Spanish for area school districts.