May 24th, 2011 In a recent New York Times op ed, Professor
Bessel A. van der Kolk, psychiatrist at Boston University School
of Medicine, reflects on the strides we have made in the U.S.
since the Vietnam era in naming and addressing post-traumatic
stress disorder in soldiers returning from war. At the same
time, progress has also been made in addressing post-traumatic
stress in children. Professor van der Kolk states that, “For
every soldier returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with symptoms
of depression or PTSD, there are around 10 children in the
United States who are traumatized by exposure to family
violence, sexual abuse, neglect and assault, with consequences
comparable to those of adult exposure to war-zone violence.”
However, President Obama’s 2012 budget proposes to reduce
financing by 70 percent to the National Child Traumatic Stress
Network, a network created in 2001 in order to evaluate and
develop treatments for traumatized children nationwide. The
network’s budget is currently $40 million — abou