A new Child Trends brief outlines strategies that policymakers, service providers, and caregivers can use during the COVID-19 pandemic to support parents who have experienced trauma. Throughout the pandemic, caregivers have faced many challenges, including unemployment and benefits cuts, loss of child care, and the need to supervise virtual learning. Research shows that chronic stress and hardship can negatively affect parents’ and caregivers’ ability to support and nurture their children, and these effects are even greater for parents who have a history of trauma.
To ensure that both parents and children receive the help they need during the pandemic, our experts offer the following strategies for policymakers:
- Prioritize financial, housing, rent/eviction, and meal assistance to parents through strategies like school-based meal programs, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and Emergency Benefit Transfer (EBT).
- Extend paid leave options and Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) benefits to parents to provide child care and virtual learning support during work hours.
- Invest in child care programs and providers to ensure robust access to child care, particularly for children with disabilities and families facing financial hardship.
- Enhance access to behavioral health care for parents through strategies such as Medicaid expansion or increased use of prevention and intervention services.
- Increase informal or formal screening of parent and caregiver mental health in child-focused services.
The brief also recommends strategies that service providers can implement to support families, including trauma-informed, family-focused curricula and enhanced screening for food insecurity and housing stability.
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Child Trends is committed to building an equitable post-pandemic society and, to that end, produces research to inform public policies and expand awareness of how to promote and protect children's well-being. You can find our work on race equity here and our work on COVID-19 here.
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