June 14, 2018
The AATA joined 10 mental health organizations and over 1,100 mental health professionals in signing a letter in opposition to the new Zero Tolerance policy that was sent to congresspeople on June 12, 2018. The letter cites clinical experience and decades of research on the psychological impact disrupted attachment [parental separation] has on children and asks policy makers to “remember what it feels like to be a child” as they consider the plight of over 700 children who have been separated from their families at the border between October 2017 and April 2018 in what amounts to systematic traumatization of children.
The letter authored by Dr. Dana Sinopoli has been expanded to three online petitions hosted by Child’s World America and now has over 5,249 individual and 81 organizational signatures and counting! Art therapists, as mental health professionals, are encouraged to sign the petition.