Rose Padilla Johnson has served as the CEO of San Leandro’s Davis Street Community Center, one of the most effective family resource centers in the state of California. Since 1991, Rose Padilla Johnson and her team of compassionate and professional mental health care providers have reduced barriers to counseling and outpatient treatment for patients without insurance or documented status.
Many states and nonprofit organizations are enacting special behavioral and mental health programs to address the distinct needs of families facing separation due to immigration status. This is motivated in part by clinical evidence that suggests that changes in federal immigration policy have a widespread impact on the mental and behavioral health of children with immigrant parents.
After the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) was enacted by President Barack Obama, one study found that the protections it put in place had positive effects on the mental health of DACA recipients' children. Now that the program has been rescinded, hundreds of thousands of families are put into precarious situations, potentially impacting the stability of nearly 6 million children's lives.
Studies have shown that fear of parental deportation keeps children out of school and disrupts their learning. These children also have a higher risk of developing depression, anxiety, and other stress-related disorders.
Davis Street held a DACA session in the fall, attended by former Senator Ellen Corbett, President of Chabot College, Susan Sperling on to urge Dreamers to submit their applications prior to the deadline.
Nearly one-third of Davis Street clients are undocumented.
