Research

Mike Gallagher - TBRI Practitioner and Co-found of 1 Million Home   

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• How does trauma impact people later in life? 

  • It stunts their growth and development by trapping them in cycles of fear and pain. And they relive it and fear that it will happen again. It has a devastating effect on the relationships, their mental health and their capacity to function in normal/ healthy productive ways. 

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• Why is the first year of life so crucial for trust-based relationships? What are your thoughts on this? 

  • "The first year of life is crucial because at birth, all survival functions are basically fully developed, but all of the higher-level functions (critical not to survival but to relationships) develop through warm, responsive care to a child's needs and distress over 100,000 times in that first year of life..."

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• According to you, what is the importance of a primary caregiver, and what is the evidence of this? What supports your statement?

  •  "The primary caregiver is the one who will give the 100,000 repeated experiences of comforting a child’s distress and meeting their needs."

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• How does an overactive amygdala hinder frontal lobe development and access to higher-level thinking? How have you seen this impact people's functioning in everyday life?

  • "The whole point is that an overactive amygdala hinders access to the prefrontal cortex because it continuously cycles primitive survival tactics rather than higher-level responses. Without growing access to those higher functions, the prefrontal cortex remains underdeveloped, and the connection to those higher functions remains underdeveloped. (double whammy). It is a destination and a road. The road and destination are hindered and not growing." 

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• Do you think that family reunification could improve the brain development of children previously raised in institutional care? What are your thoughts on this, and have you seen any evidence that supports this? 

  • "Absolutely. This is the leading goal and desired outcome for every child living apart from their biological parents. The only exceptions should be abuse or willful neglect. Adult outcome studies have shown that children reuniting with safe birth parents do far better than those who never reunified. When reunification with biological parents is not safe or possible, research shows that children resettled with biological relatives do far better than those who aged out of orphan care and foster care without ever having a permanent placement. When permanent reunification and resettlement is not possible, adoption produces the best adult outcomes."

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• What are the differences in outcomes regarding the development of the amygdala and frontal lobe in children raised in orphanages compared to foster care?

  • ​"A failed outcome (did not produce permanence) in the foster care system has about the same detrimental effects as growing up in an orphanage."

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• What are the differences you have observed between Kenya and the U.S.? 

  • "Kenya is tribal and familial; therefore, there is a care system woven into their culture. 60% of the children that are on the streets end up with relatives, not birth parents. It is more natural in Kenyan culture to take in a nice, nephew, or grandchild. In America, we are very individualistic and don’t take responsibility for the struggles and needs of our extended families. Therefore, the U.S. depends on government programs as the solution to family breakdown instead of family as the solution." 

  • "Everyone needs the intervention, but the intervention of family reunification is much more ingrained in Kenyan culture." 

  • "The U.S. government also regulates the interventions, making them more expensive and ineffective. In theory, this is to protect the children, but in practice, it's a disaster." 

  • "Street children do much better in reunification than those who were raised in orphanages" 

  • "The majority of children in orphanages are there with their living parents' consent."

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• Is poverty the problem? 

  • "It is never just poverty, ever. Therefore, it is not a financial solution to family breakdown. Relational problems require relational solutions. We are helping thousands of children go home very year that were on the streets and in orphanages go home to poor families and communities. The point is that it's not only because of poverty that they end up as orphans. Of course, poverty makes everything harder, but most poor families are resilient, and most children raised in poor but loving families are much more resilient, capable of becoming functional and independent adults versus those who were raised in better-funded orphanages". 

  • "It is better for children to grow up in a resilient family and to become resilient adults than to become crippled by being taken out of a loving family and supported by people overseas." 

  • "Ministry stuff can be scary because they get into it with good intentions, and it becomes a disaster. Then they realize it and don’t clean up their mess."