A Safer Place

Perspect Biol Med. 2016;59(3):413-418. doi: 10.1353/pbm.2016.0035.

Abstract

Recent studies show that people who live in a fear-based existence from childhood change not only psychologically or spiritually, but even biologically. This essay relates the story of a family in the Emergency Room at a children's hospital. Over a few days, this family affects everyone they encounter. The staff witness a family trapped in a web of poverty, abuse, and generationally destructive behavior, and they wonder about the overtaxed support structures that not only fail to serve, but that may well promise additional tragic generations to come.

MeSH terms

  • Child
  • Emergency Service, Hospital
  • Fear*
  • Health Risk Behaviors
  • Humans
  • Intergenerational Relations
  • Poverty*
  • Psychosocial Support Systems