If there is a silver lining for at-risk children in this time of worldwide fear, pain, and anxiety, it will be recognizing that creating healthy children and families is necessary for a healthy community. All the new cars, stadiums, and buildings in the world won’t make a safe and productive society.
DR Bruce Perry was half right 20 years ago, reflecting on what he thought would be an extraordinary number of special needs Americans (25% by 2025). KARA estimates it is closer to 50% today and not the 25% DR Perry thought possible (defined in read more below).
The chaos of social unrest, war, and COVID hide the trauma and suffering of children. The media, politics, and public discourse are too busy with current events to dive deep into the next generation’s troubles. Remember, the children of today will support the working generation of today.
Struggling families facing poverty, job loss, combative politics, distrust of institutions, and the anxiety of the moment are making life harder for all children and most families. Parental suffering and dysfunction impact how they parent their children.
Many moms and dads do not have coping skills for managing the great changes, pressure, and fear of this moment. Stressed-out families drink and drugs more and experience more tension, conflict, and domestic violence – inflicting severe collateral damage on their children. Our public policies need to recognize these simple truths.
If we can grasp the reality that “What we do to our children, they will do to our society” (Greek Philosopher Pliny 2000 years ago) we can react wisely to save this generation of children. America is well positioned to rebuild families, communities, and a nation that once led the world in quality of life. We have the dollars, energy, and institutional horsepower to do so.
Advocate for child-friendly initiatives where you live – especially your State Representative. Let them know you want the young families in your community to have the resources they need to raise healthy children.
You and I and our legislators need to solve this problem. It is the only way it will be solved.
WHEN YOU Share KARA’s reporting with FRIENDS, INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK and most of all, your State Representative (find them here) change will come. When enough of us become informed and speak up for abused and neglected children, we will improve their lives and our communities!
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This post provided by former CASA volunteer Guardian ad Litem MikeTikkanen
there may be some overlap between these groups, and the data comes from different years, so this is an approximate calculation.
Mental Health Issues
Approximately 26% of American adults suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year – This translates to about 1 in 4 adults.
Physical Disabilities
Over 70 million U.S. adults (more than 1 in 4) reported having a disability in 2022.
Children in Foster Care
As of fiscal year 2022, there were 368,500 children in foster care, which is about 0.5% of the child population.
Elderly Population
People 65 and older represented 17.3% of the population in 2022.
Criminal Justice System
While exact numbers for those in the criminal justice system, on parole, and in juvenile detention are not provided in the search results, we can estimate this to be around 1-2% of the population based on general knowledge.
Calculation
Adding these percentages together, we get:26% (mental health) + 25% (physical disabilities) + 0.5% (foster care) + 17.3% (elderly) + ~2% (criminal justice system) ≈ 70.8%
However, this sum likely includes significant overlap. For example, many elderly individuals may also have physical disabilities or mental health issues. Similarly, some people in the criminal justice system may have mental health or physical disabilities.
Conclusion
Considering the potential overlap and the broad definition of “special needs,” a more conservative estimate might place the percentage of Americans who could be considered to have special needs between 40-50% of the population. This includes individuals with mental health issues, physical disabilities, those in the child welfare and criminal justice systems, and the elderly population who may require additional support or services. It’s crucial to note that this is a rough estimate based on the available data and should be interpreted cautiously. Add to this the exponential growth in generational child abuse and it is hard to see how these numbers can be reversed without a change in public policy.
There may be some overlap between these groups, and the data comes from different years, so this is an approximate calculation.
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