Advocacy statement – Unite Families

As naturopathic doctors, we are acutely aware of the harmful effects of toxic stress. For children, the impacts are severe and long-lasting, predisposing to a range of negative health outcomes. The Pediatric Association of Naturopathic Physicians has been horrified by the separation of children from their parents at the US-Mexico border, and the additional stress of facing immigration hearings on their own. Children are being traumatized through no fault of their own because their parents are escaping violence and poverty, attempting to create a better life for their families. The impacts on the brains and bodies of these children set them up to struggle through their lives, predisposing them to the risk of intergenerational transfer of the biopsychosocial conditions that perpetuate conflict and further toxic stress.

While we appreciate that the practice of family separation is being discontinued, we urge the US government to do everything in its power to reunite families, and to treat all human beings with dignity and compassion, regardless of the legality of their attempts to cross the border.