Todo Por Mi Familia – a nationwide effort to connect families who were forcibly separated to mental health treatment
Guest blogger: Meghan O’Day, law student, University of San Francisco
On April 27th, 2020, a California-based non-profit, Seneca Family of Agencies, launched ‘Todo Por Mi Familia,’ an initiative to connect immigrant families who were affected by the Trump administration’s Zero Tolerance Policy, to free mental health services across the US.
In November, 2019, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled that the government must provide mental health services to migrant families for the psychological harm they experienced as a result of the Trump administration’s policy separating families at the border. Ms. J.P. et al. v. Jefferson B. Sessions, et al. (2019). The class action suit named several federal officials and entities as defendants, including Jeff Sessions, Kristjen Nielsen, DHS, ICE, CBP, Alex Azar II, HHS, Scott Lloyd, ORR, David Marin, Lisa Von Nordheim, Marc Moore, and Lowell Clark. The complaint advanced claims under equal protection and due process under the Fifth Amendment and sought injunctive and declaratory relief – specifically evidence-based and trauma-informed mental health screening and services.
In the 50-page groundbreaking opinion by U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt, the court held that the government’s family separation policy would cause irreparable injury unless the families were provided with immediate mental health care. The court held that the government was responsible for remedying the trauma suffered by these families because they were “aware of the risks associated with family separation when they implemented it” (preliminary injunction order, page 40-41). The government argued that any trauma families suffered would go away once they were reunited, but thankfully the court did not fall for that trick. Ken Berrick, CEO and Founder of Seneca Family of Agencies, stated “Reunification of family members does not ameliorate the consequences of family separation and the trauma that it caused. We know that it will take years of intensive support and treatment to address the trauma caused by the separation, and the impact that it is going to have on the parents’ and children’s mental health.”[1]
Seneca Family of Agencies was awarded a $14.5 million dollar contract by the government to provide these free mental health services that the court ordered.[2] Seneca created the program, ‘Todo Por Mi Familia (All For My Family)” to address these needs. Families can call Seneca’s toll-free, confidential hotline at 844-529-3327 or email info@todopormifamilia.org to speak with a Seneca representative and be connected with a mental health service provider in their area, for free, and in the families’ preferred language.
More than 2,200 families were forcibly separated, Seneca has connected with 515 of those families to date, and has enlisted more than 230 providers across the country to help.[3] Paige Chan, the director of Seneca in Southern California listed three challenges they are facing in this implementation.[4] The first is finding these parents and children, since the government does not keep good contact information on them.[5] The second challenge is building trust with families, since many of them have lost trust with anyone perceived to be working with the government – even though Seneca is definitely not supportive of what the government has done.[6] The third challenge is building a national network of mental health professionals who have expertise in working with this population, and particularly the ability to offer this type of treatment in multiple languages.[7]
Thanks to Seneca Family of Agencies for spearheading this effort, and spread the news for mental health organizations who can provide culturally-sensitive, trauma-informed services for these families (and bonus points for those that speak other languages!)
[1] Press Release, Public Counsel (Nov. 8, 2019) http://www.publiccounsel.org/tools/assets/files/1242.pdf
[2] Jasmine Aguilera, ‘We Can Begin To Heal the Wounds.’ Inside the Efforts to Provide Mental Health Care to Families Separated at the U.S. Border, N.Y. TIMES, Nov. 25, 2020.
[3] https://www.senecafoa.org/todopormifamilia/
[4] Supra note 2.
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
bh