Experts speak out on mental health toll on unaccompanied migrant children

SAN YSIDRO AND CALEXICO, Calif. — In the last three years, Dr. Gaurav Mishra, Chief Behavioral Health Officer at San Ysidro Health, a wellness and health nonprofit in San Diego, has worked with unaccompanied migrant minors who at times are housed by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) a federal agency.

Dr. Mishra stated that many of the children he worked with have experienced a significant amount of trauma in their countries of origin and some were escaping with the hope of a better life, defining unaccompanied minors as anybody younger than 18 years old who doesn’t have an adult family member or caregiver.

“During the last few years, there’ve been many kids who’ve actually crossed without any adult with them. They’ve just crossed by themselves,” Dr. Mishra said.

According to Mishra, at the time, they were temporarily housed at the San Diego Convention Center, due to the large number of unaccompanied minors coming to the U.S.-Mexico border, where he gathered findings regarding their mental health.

“The total number of kids who sort of went through the convention center or were housed there for any given amount of time was between 3,000 and 3,500,” he said.

“Many of the children were definitely struggling with anxiety and uncertainty because as they were traveling to the United States,” Mishra said. “They had expected a totally different sort of reception. They had expected things would really get better at the moment they crossed the border, but in many situations, they were actually held at the border, detained, which really made them uncertain about how things would turn out.”

Scott Dudley, Behavioral Health Manager for Imperial County, has supported migrants in the county through the agency and directly assesses mental health distress and function of the populations coming into the U.S.

In his experience talking to migrants in general, the migrants share with Dudley that they’re driven to the U.S. because they feel there are no other options.

“When you get into that position, you feel the stress of whatever drove you,” Dudley said.

Dudley said the causes of migration and the struggles of the journey affect the migrants’ mental health. In addition, coming to the U.S. and facing paperwork in their non-native language, a new culture, and learning a whole different language also have a weight on the state of their mental health.

He stated that several federal and local agencies are involved to make sure children are safe and connected with their family members or people they are going to live with in the United States.

Dr. Mishra said they provided minors with guidance on how to manage their anxiety, as many didn’t know when they would reunite with family members.

“We provided them with a packet and set of recommendations that they could take which were specific to what mental health needs they had or what would they benefit from,” Mishra said. “They took this very difficult step to leave home.”

He also stated that the minors showed to have a sense of resiliency.

“Many of them told us they wanted to be attorneys, doctors, teachers,” Dr. Mishra said. “They had aspirations for their life which are very encouraging to see because despite what they’ve been through.”

“I think they were motivated to do better for themselves and actually have a positive impact on this country,” Mishra said.