Improving Outcomes for Children Exposed to Violence: Safe Start Promising Approaches; Appendix E. El Paso, Texas: Intervention, Study, and Results

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited. Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors. percent of whom were younger than age 18 and 8 percent of whom were younger than age 5. Approximately 15 percent of the population were white, 3 percent were black, 80 percent were Hispanic, and 2 percent were Native American, Asian, or other. The 2014 median household income was $47,075, and about 19 percent of the population were living at or below the poverty threshold. Of families with children under the age of 18, 26 percent were living at or below the poverty threshold. In 2014, the violent crime rate in El Paso was 234.4 per 100,000 residents, compared with the national average of 202.6 per 100,000 (City-Data.com). To address the needs of families and children exposed to violence, Aliviane developed the Behavioral Health Clinic to provide services to children and adolescents exposed to violence. Since its inception, the clinic has provided services to children ages 0–18 who were 95 percent Hispanic, 54 percent male, and 75 percent living below the poverty threshold (Aliviane, 2010). Trauma experienced by clients of the Aliviane Behavioral Health Clinic included DV (70 percent), emotional abuse (66 percent), traumatic loss or bereavement (40 percent), physical abuse (32 percent), sexual abuse (22 percent), sexual assault and rape (10 percent), school violence (17 percent), community violence (16 percent), neglect (24 percent), and extreme interpersonal violence (7 percent). The most-frequent mental health symptoms of these exposures in children treated at Aliviane were depression (30 percent), general behavior problems (16 percent), anxiety (14 percent), PTSD (13 percent), traumatic or complicated grief (8 percent), acute stress disorder (6 percent), attachment problems (5 percent), and oppositional defiant disorder (4 percent). …