City-Wide Trauma Awareness, Sensitivity and Healing Through Relationships
Executive Summary Trauma and adversity are a growing public health concern (Thorley, 2019). Van Der Kolk (2014) noted that childhood trauma had been identified as one of the most important public health challenges facing societies today. Bellis (2021) in his address at the Five Nations Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Meeting noted that the cost of trauma to the health and justice systems across Europe is approximately $581 billion dollars per annum. Previous research reports that our earliest experiences in life inform the foundations for lifelong health, well-being, and quality of life (Thorley, 2019; Romero et al, 2018; Liming et al ., 2014). Notably, responsive relationships and supportive family and community environments have been shown to shape a child’s future well-being, development, educational engagement, and health (Romero et al ., 2018), and are indeed key to positive life outcomes (Campbell et al. , 2016). Several nations across the globe have accelerated their respective trauma/ACEs movement significantly in recent years. Countries including Scotland and Wales have implemented impactful trauma-focused frameworks with great success. These frameworks have been reported to decrease social isolation, improve educational outcomes, and build resilience in young people (Skuse & Matthew, 2015). Cities including Plymouth (UK), Lancashire (UK), Tennessee (US) and Tarpon Springs, Florida (US) have begun the journey to implementing Trauma Informed Practice at a city and community level. Mental Health Ireland and Alcohol Action Ireland (2021) advocate that cultural changes must take place within our public and social systems to reflect the impact of trauma. They call for a multi-agency, multi-pronged approach to trauma-sensitive services. The Government of Ireland report prepared by the Department of Health, ‘ Vision ~ A Mental Health Policy for Everyone’ (2020) gives a very clear mandate regarding the provision of Trauma-Informed Service Delivery Principles and specifically states that staff in every part of mental health organisations change their language, behaviour and policies to take into consideration the experiences of those who have trauma histories, including staff members themselves. This mandate needs to transcend all organisations, where at an organisational and individual level people are given an opportunity to reflect and retrain using a ‘trauma-sensitive lens’. In “Cork: Our Vision for a Trauma-Sensitive City” we are providing a framework and opportunity for us collectively as a city, collaboratively at an organizational level as well as at an individual level, an opportunity to embrace and adopt a trauma lens in the work that we do and the lives that we live. Fundamentally, taking a population-level, trauma-sensitive approach means • developing proactive systems that aspire to prevent trauma from occurring in the first place • promoting protective factors for all • recognising the behaviours that may be the result of trauma and intervening appropriately, and • helping people who are suffering adverse consequences in a trauma-sensitive way. At the most basic level, trauma is the presence of toxic stress in the body, leading to the overproduction of cortisol, which in turn activates our innate fight/flight/freeze/fawn response and occurs without the buffer of a secure relationship (Mulcahy, 2018; Siegel, 2012). t Stress, when mild, can promote healthy development; however, when stress is prolonged and unpredictable and occurs in the absence of a ‘buffer’ or caring relationship, can have a negative impact on how our brains and bodies function and how we view the world around us. (Hornor, 2015). Fundamentally, healing and recovery from trauma occur through responsive
Cork Trauma Sensitive City
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