April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month and Child Abuse Listening Mediation (CALM) is committed to spreading awareness and increasing support to combat the growing mental health crisis facing the nation.

Over the last two years, the mental health crisis in the nation and in the community has become increasingly complex. The U.S. surgeon general recently warned that youth mental health is worse than it has ever been.

The proportion of hospitalizations for children and youth related to mental health grew by 30% in relation to all other ER visits during COVID-19. The number of child abuse and neglect reports that initially went down during stay-at-home orders have returned to their typical levels in Santa Barbara County – and the reports are qualitatively worse.

These trends are compounding and coupled with additional challenges like financial and economic stress, according to reports.

Feelings of anxiety and depression, traumas like child abuse and domestic violence, and uncertainty about how to care for children in this overwhelming time are just a subset of the stressors that have increased since the start of the pandemic, all of which are risk factors for child abuse and childhood trauma.

To root out some of the most pernicious challenges in society, it is necessary to address childhood trauma and prevent it by building resilient communities.

CALM is on the forefront of the mental health crisis locally with three offices in Lompoc, Santa Barbara and Santa Maria. More than 80 clinicians and trainees work to supply essential mental health services to some 2,000 individual clients throughout the county each year.

Since its founding some 50 years ago, CALM has always taken a prevention-stance. By working with parents and caregivers, CALM embraces a whole-person approach to address the challenges that can lead to child abuse.

By partnering with educators and pediatricians, CALM promotes a multi-system strategy to educating, supporting and empowering families to be healthy and well. By connecting with young children before they’ve been abused, CALM helps families build healthy attachment that sets them up for a lifetime of safety and resilience.

CALM therapists are embedded in youth-serving organizations to help children, and families, understand and implement resilience building practices, providing the tools necessary to strengthen the family.

CALM partners with organizations across the county to implement trauma-informed training and care to better serve the community. The collaborative effort spans several systems and allows for an approach that takes therapists and practices outside the agency to meet families where they are.

CALM supports the message of National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and while April is a time to focus on the scope of the problem, CALM is determined to prevent childhood trauma all year long.

For more, visit calm4kids.org or call 805-965-2376.