Patrice Kunesh (’89), Founding Director of Peȟíŋ Haha Consulting, authored an essay for National Native Children’s Trauma Center outlining strategies for community well-being for Native children who experienced the highest level of caregiver loss in the COVID-19 pandemic (“How Are the Children?” Jan. 14). “Among these COVID ‘orphans,’ a staggering number of Native children have lost parents and caregivers. These children face an ‘epidemic of mental health challenges,’ but only partly because of the COVID-19 pandemic—their well-being should be our top policy priority. . . . This challenge is as much a moral imperative as it is a public health mandate. We can honor the lives lost to the pandemic, especially the parents and caregivers, by focusing community investments on child well-being and fostering their optimal healing and resiliency.”
