VINTON COUNTY, Ohio (WSYX) \u2014 The removal of 16 children from a Vinton County home this week is raising new concerns about the long-term trauma investigators say they may have endured.<\/p>\n
Authorities removed the children Tuesday. Dr. David Lowenstein, a Columbus psychologist, who is not connected to the case, said the situation could have lifelong consequences.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is going to affect them the rest of their lives, it\u2019s a major trauma,\u201d Lowenstein said.<\/p>\n
The children range in age from 1 1\/2 to 18, Lowenstein said. Authorities described the living conditions as disturbing and unlivable.<\/p>\n
Authorities say the children were kept in a 12-by-12-foot room for years and were not enrolled in school. It is not known if they could read or write.<\/p>\n
Lowenstein said the youngest children may not remember everything, but older children will likely need extensive help.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe younger the age, if there is something good, there won\u2019t be much of a memory because their minds are pretty young,\u201d Lowenstein said, \u201cBut anyone who is three or four, one was 18, those kids are going to need long term treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Authorities say several children, including an 18-year-old girl, appear to be developmentally disabled, with some unable to communicate.<\/p>\n
Lowenstein said treatment often begins with establishing trust.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have to trust somebody first,\u201d Lowenstein said. \u201cThey don\u2019t even know anybody, so they’ve got to learn, they’ve got to feel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would spend the first year building long-term relationships, so the person can trust me,\u201d Lowenstein said. \u201cThere is a lot of work that needs to be done before you know what direction to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The children’s parents and 2 grandparents each face 17 counts of child endangering.<\/p>\n
Lowenstein said the case is a reminder to speak up if there are concerns about a child\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI would rather you be wrong,\u201d Lowenstein said, \u201cthan miss something as serious as this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VINTON COUNTY, Ohio (WSYX) \u2014 The removal of 16 children from a Vinton County home this week is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394],"class_list":["post-781200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}