For Ina Rose, having care that addresses her physical needs due to starvation is only a piece of her recovery.

Abused children also undergo counseling. Even in the most serious cases, for such children there is hope, said Dave Ziegler, the executive director of SCAR/Jasper Mountain.

The nonprofit facility in the Eugene area works with hundreds of abused children annually, contracting with Oregon and other states to take the most severely abused kids.

“You have to go to hell with them and back,” he said.

But, he said, research and studies are proving that people’s brains learn to adapt — to the abuse and to training to overcome it.

For a child such as Ina Rose, Ziegler said, it’s critically important she undergo intensive counseling. But also, he said, such children need stability and a schedule. It’s critically important she can predict when meals will be and that she has access to clothing. Her basic needs never can be optional and she must have control over those needs, he explained.

“There is no normal after serious neglect, but there is a new normal,” Ziegler said.

That involves working with children to cope in a new way to stresses, to teach them skills and to help guide them one step at a time.