Defining Trauma – Give Us Your Feedback
Increasingly, multiple federal agencies representing various service sectors have recognized the impact of trauma on the children, adults, and families they serve. In 2011, in its strategic action plan, SAMHSA designated Trauma as one of its key initiatives. This led SAMHSA to revisit its trauma-related concepts and programming and their applicability not only to behavioral health but to other related fields.
In May 2012, after an extensive literature and policy review, SAMHSA convened a group of national experts to assist in the development of a working definition of trauma and trauma-informed approaches, and principles and guidelines for implementing a trauma-informed approach to services. The experts included trauma survivors, practitioners from multiple fields, researchers and policy makers.
SAMHSA is now seeking input from the public and is inviting those interested in this issue to read and provide feedback on the complete concept paper, SAMHSA’s Working Definition of Trauma and Principles and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach.
The feedback forum will be open from the period beginning Monday, December 10th and ending at midnight Eastern Time on Friday, December 21st 2012. This forum will provide an open and transparent process by which stakeholders can offer their comments about the definitions, principles and guidelines and suggestions on how they can be improved.
Feedback received on the forum is an important part of the public dialogue on this issue. Your feedback will be carefully considered in the shaping of the definitions of trauma and trauma-informed approach, the principles, and the guidelines of a trauma-informed approach.
Process for Public Feedback: For ease of review, the paper is divided into three sections. Each section has a separate link and unique forum to provide comments and, if you wish, to vote on comment offered by others. You have up to 10 votes to endorse other comment and you may revise your votes throughout the comment period. The links to the 3 parts are:
- Definition of Trauma
- A Trauma-Informed Approach
- Guidelines for Implementing a Trauma-Informed Approach
SAMHA looks forward to receiving your feedback. Thank you.
Ma’am/ Sir: I’d like to thank you in advance for taking on this subject. I have spent 20 yrs in the Marines served in two conflicts/wars and am now in a drug treatment center as a Counselor. The trauma you are interested in documenting is around me all through out my day. My clients are victims and survivors, they have caused the trauma and or have been on the receiving end of this trauma. I’d be happy to see more information developed on how to handle trauma effectively because my clients resort to self medicating to ease the stressors caused by these incidents. I have found that most of my fellow counselors aren’t prepared to handle the reactions these clients have to normal everyday events… a flat tire, an angry look from someone they don’t know…a bounced check…all of these actions can have a dysfunctional reaction from individuals that have no support system, no ability to reason. Please keep people of limited resources and or limited functioning in mind when you write the guidelines. Military professionals V.A. have some great programs that I have pulled from on numerous occasions to assist my clients. If you haven’t approached the V.A. for their input we will be missing out on all the years of research that has already been accomplished. Thank you.
Thank you for acknowledging the part of trauma in the lives of peers who are experiencing substance abuse, mental health, or co-occurring disorders. I am ever grateful that this issue is coming to the forefront in research and practice. Understanding is the first step in healing. Many will be blessed by this important work!
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Trauma, how should we define it? How can we administer better services for the individuals who suffer from this disorder+drugs,keep this disorder contained..with out the drugs, the person who suffers from trauma can not live there lives to the fullest potential..now we ask do people over medicate themselves? to much…but there is a fine line between over medicated and people being able to control there symptoms by these medications…can you imagine someone who has concurring trauma in there lives to not be on medications, and where do we say they take to much…where is the guide line being drawn..and it should be made more clear. Trauma alone is life changing, now lets add panic disorder,anxiety,fear,phobias, and many other disorders that often come with trauma,even people who have been sexual abused a whole new trauma, now you combine all of this to one person who has lived it, where do you begin to sort out treatment w/out medication?..just alone sexual abuse is a life long pain one feels the rest of there lives, it manifest in there daily life in some way, or another now try to understand it? I believe when we can truly understand the human brain, we can be able to help more people who suffer from trauma,for me I take medication, I can not see myself with out it, the medications have side effects, but what is worse than having a anxiety attack or suffer a panic attack, since I take the medication, I am able to do the things I have to do, with out them I am lost..but in the same fashion I don’t over take them. I remember before I started taking the medication, I lived my life in fear,I was always in fighter flight mode, my body and mind, never was able to rest, until I took these medications, I would not want to go back to where I was…trauma is for life, no matter how you look at it, the key is to learn how to live with it…that alone is a subject on it’s own, as for me medication, one more stigma is family support, it is a key to a individual who suffers from this and other mental disorders, I remember my kids telling mom, you do not need the medications you are ok, they see my outside appearance I have learned to hide it, but inside my body, my brain, it is something different going on, for me, this has been the most difficult part of trauma, how do I tell my kids that I have these disorders, they feel uncertain, all I know is because of the medications I take I am able to show some feelings and emotions to them, I love them very much, but showing emotions was always a big part of my disorders and when I lost my daughter in 2009, I thought I would die,part of me left with her that night, I had to take more medication to help me cope, now I take my normal prescription…Trauma has so many ugly faces…it is hard to imagine a human being going through it,endless you have gone through it yourself, so with that said…trauma of any kind is real, it is not a perception, or thought, or idea, it is a disorder that
some times kills…today I am ok, I am educated about this disorder
more important I got help, education is a key to professionals who are helping people who suffer from trauma, you have to want to understand this disorder, it is a mental illness…I had a hard time coming to terms of this disease because of the name (Mental Illness)
I thought the word meant I am crazy..this is a big part mental illness in my mind was someone who was chained or locked in a room and never let out… I did not or could not say I was mentally ill..now I can, it is just like someone who has cancer, no difference and that is how I have coped with my illness, like remission, knowing I have to take medication the rest of my life, I am ok with that, some people are not,we should focus on taking way the stigma Mental illness,has or trauma leads to mental illness, I know it does, but many don’t
Diane
Are you asking for my definition of trauma?
The most traumatic experience in my life was when I was medicated so heavily on neuroleptic psychotic psychiatric medications (whatever you call it) that I could not vocalize my agony to the psychiatric staff then presiding over my “case” of “Chronic Schizophrenia”. The mediations meant for psychotic people broke up my thought patternes to the point I could not put more than 2 words together. They led me to think my symptoms were my illness and kept giving me the same medication which was making me catatonic. My folks intervened after 6 months of this and saved my life.
Thank you.
Joseph Carson
jcwildgarden@gmail.com
I am a member on forum about spinal cord injuries, and I know how many people suffer from different kind of traumas. Many of members of the forum are people from military service with an injuries that disabled them and they suffer a lot, not to mention traumas they are going through. We are all sufferers and we all have traumas that that limits us in our daily lives. Thank you for making this forum, I took active participation and hope to have a great feedback.
Thank you for taking on this subject. I work in a MICA unit in NYC and I have seen the impact of large scale shared trauma like wars and natural disasters and the impact it has on a persons cognitive and emotional process. I have noticed the correlation between trauma and substance use and believe that in many cases this is is what is happening. I do hope you will cover small “t” trauma meaning trauma that happens to individuals in cases of abuse, neglect, discrimination and the like. There have been studies on the brain that have shown trauma like effects from these events as well. In Graduate school I studied abroad in Israel on the subject of trauma and we learned about post traumatic growth and the healing wok that is being done in this area. I will be bloging about this on my website http://www.steven-dawson.com and would love to hear peoples feedback.
This is a very descriptive, thorough, and organized document. It describes what trauma is, what the different aspects of trauma are, and is descriptive on how to treat it. It is very in depth on trauma, where it is not only descriptive and precise but also very detailed and thorough. It is organized into the stages of trauma and the stages of how to treat it, which encompass the main idea of the document.
It is a document that someone of any behavioral health position or anyone who may suffer from trauma would be able to utilize and understand. Indeed, it expresses the importance of collaboration of people in the effort to alleviate trauma, whether it be counselors, psychologists, social workers, or doctors.
As a member of the treatment community I just wonder if anything is known about triggers for the trauma. I know as a recipient of trauma from childhood that any kind of serious harm or infliction caused to someone else and I hear of it like a news story, it will trigger very strong emotional reactions and at times can be paralyzing. So it is not just the initial survival process and healing from this but things in our continued everyday lives will recreate all the inner emotions and learning how to manage this and live is difficult. For each inidividual a personal experience will have numerous responses and the pain is so deeply ingrained into the psyche the reaction from this is all different as well. I try and allow each member time to share thier response from the expereince but also ask what they would like to improve on so they can live in the world and tolerate and the new triggers they will face. Also just from expereince identifying the triggers is hard this took me nearly ten plus years to figure things out. I appreciate all the wonderful work you have done and continue to provide everyone with.