What are we going to do about the violence in our nation and in our world?

Time to Discuss this in every single arena, including the entertainment industry. I want to start the discussion around trauma and the role that trauma plays in our lives. We have either had a traumatic event happen in our lives or know someone who has.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, violence is a significant public health problem in the United States. Each year, more than 55,000 people in the United States die as a result of violence and more than 2,000,000 are treated in emergency departments for a violence-related injury. The number of violence-related deaths and injuries tell only part of the story. Violence can lead to other significant mental and physical health consequences such as depression and anxiety, pregnancy complications, and even chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. Violence also erodes the sense of safety and security so essential to the well-being of families and significantly impacts communities by reducing productivity, decreasing property values, and disrupting social services.

In addition, the National Center for Trauma Informed Care (NCTIC), for which I am a consultant, purports that 61 percent of men and 51 percent of women in the general population have had at least one lifetime traumatic experience (Kessler). That’s most Americans. Since this is the case, we do two things…1) We avoid retraumatising someone and 2) if someone has not had a traumatic experience, we seek to do no harm.

Traumatic experiences can be dehumanizing, shocking or terrifying, singular or multiple compounding events over time, and often include betrayal of a trusted person or institution and a loss of safety. Trauma can result from experiences of violence. Trauma includes physical, sexual and institutional abuse, neglect, intergenerational trauma, and disasters that induce powerlessness, fear, recurrent hopelessness, and a constant state of alert. Trauma impacts one’s spirituality and relationships with self, others, communities and environment, often resulting in recurring feelings of shame, guilt, rage, isolation, and disconnection. Healing is possible.

Although exact prevalence estimates vary, there is a consensus in the field that most consumers of mental health services are trauma survivors and that their trauma experiences help shape their responses to outreach and services.

Trauma-informed care is an approach to engaging people with histories of trauma that recognizes the presence of trauma symptoms and acknowledges the role that trauma has played in their lives. NCTIC facilitates the adoption of trauma-informed environments in the delivery of a broad range of services including mental health, substance use, housing, vocational or employment support, domestic violence and victim assistance, and peer support. In all of these environments, NCTIC seeks to change the paradigm from one that asks, “What’s wrong with you?” to one that asks, “What has happened to you?”

Think about where we aim to blame in the question, “What’s wrong with you?”. Makes sense to reframe it.

Happy healthy discussion folks.

William