SPECIAL ISSUE on Trauma Informed Care of
The Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma (JAMT) Guest Editors: Megan Garza, Susan Omilian, and Karen Rich CALL FOR PAPERS! The Journal of Aggression Maltreatment and Trauma is calling for papers that focus on experiences in implementing a trauma-informed approach in all sectors and systems that affect people across the life span. These systems and sectors include schools, colleges, primary health care, hospitals, child welfare, human services, mental health services, civil, criminal, and family courts as well as the criminal justice system (e.g., law enforcement, prosecutors, adult corrections and juvenile facilities). In fully acknowledging the trauma caused by current or past victimization and the impact on the victims and their families, the systems can respond in a manner that is more fully supportive, whole person-centered, and avoids re-traumatization. With traumatic events having an adverse effect on an individual’s functioning and physical, emotional and/or spiritual well-being, trauma-informed care is grounded in an understanding of the neurological, biological, psychological, and social impact of trauma on the person as well as the heavy burden those effects can have on individuals, families, and communities. A program, organization, or system that is trauma-informed creates a contextual milieu and a culture of delivering care and services to people impacted by trauma in a way that realizes the impacts of trauma, understands potential paths for recovery, and recognizes the signs and symptoms of trauma and vicarious trauma in clients, families, staff, and others involved with the system. It responds by fully integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices and seeks to actively mitigate re-traumatization and encourage self-care. A trauma-informed approach is distinct from trauma-specific interventions or treatments that are designed specifically to address the consequences of trauma and to facilitate healing. The emphasis of this special issue is to present research, practice and policies in implementing such care in the various systems noted above. Papers should fall into one of the following general categories: (1) theoretical/ research based, with concluding recommendations for best practice protocols that benefit both practitioners and the clients served; (2) examples of existing model programs that have implemented the Adverse Childhood Experiences ACEs) research and/or trauma informed care principles, including how the program was “sold” to the sponsoring institution, and, (3) where there is little or no research on implementing trauma-informed care for a given population, a theoretical paper on why trauma- informed procedures need to be developed and examples. We are especially interested in papers that include how funding was accessed, training was conducted, and issues of diversity (racial, ethnic, religious, ability-based, etc.) were addressed among the populations served. Potential contributors should submit proposals in the form of a detailed abstract (500-700 words) highlighting the type of article and an overview of substantive content. They should be sent no later than July 1, 2017 to Guest Editors Megan Garza (megangarza@email.com); Susan Omilian (susan@thriverzone.com), or Karen Rich (krich@maryu.marywood.edu). Please copy journals@ivatcenter.org on all communication. Decisions will be disseminated within 30 days. Full manuscripts are due by October 15, 2017. Once manuscripts are approved for the Special Issue, they must be submitted electronically to the Journal via the JAMT website. These articles will receive anonymous double blind peer review by the reviewers and the editorial board of the journal. Preparing manuscripts for submission: All manuscripts need to follow 6th edition APA format. This include 12 pt Times New Roman font and 1 inch margins. The title page should also include the author(s) address and contact information for correspondence, affiliation, and 8 key words or phrases for abstracting. Headings must follow APA format with bold, italics, and indentation as appropriate. Each article should be summarized in an abstract of not more than 120 words. Articles should not exceed 30 double-spaced pages inclusive of text, references, and tables. References, citations, and general style of manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the most recent APA Publication Manual. All references in the text should be cited in the references section, and vice versa. These should be double checked before submission. Cite in the text by author and date (Smith, 2008) and include an alphabetical list at the end of the article.
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A common misconception is that rapes must happen by force. People often visualize a bloody, battered victim who yelled and tried to fight back against a stranger who pulled them into the bushes. This is a very unlikely scenario for a variety of reasons, one being that 75-85% of sexual assaults are perpetrated by someone the victim knows, not a stranger. Often, the perpetrator is a friend or a loved one, possibly even a spouse or partner. Definitions of Sexual assault/abuse/rape all can include "lack of consent". When someone is drugged, unconscious, asleep, under the influence of drugs or alcohol, disabled and unable to understand the situation, or too young, or in a situation where they are compromised and unable to make a reasonable decision, they lack they ability to consent to sex. No resistance is necessary. Federal rape law is: "Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim."
State laws vary. Unfortunately, many people who are sexually abused are "frozen" with fear or dissociated at the time of their assault and are unable to fight, yell, or struggle. This sadly leads them to inappropriately blame themselves or for others to blame them for the abuse instead of the one truly at fault, the perpetrator. April is Sexual Assault Awareness month
Depending on one's experience and perspective, many people will say either "sexual assault is rare. I don't really know anyone personally that it has happened to" or "Everybody gets sexually assaulted. It's not a big deal." Neither are true. It doesn't happen to everyone, but it does happen to a significant minority of people. About 20-35% of women experience sexual assault. Most meta-analytic research is on the higher end of this figure. You may see lower "1 in 5" stats coming out of more recent research from NCVS, (which though a robust study, has limitations in how it is done and tends to leave off the most vulnerable.) What we can glean from NCVS data is that sexual assault rates appear to be declining (this study is conducted at regular intervals). People are speaking up about it more. Other studies show men's views about sexual assault and related behaviors have changed considerably in recent decades and that abusive things that men once commonly did without guilt or shame is no longer the case. It is pretty remarkable to see the generational difference between what millenials versus boomers express in terms of misogyny. Both values and behaviors have changed about sexual assault as the public has become more educated and more brave people have opened up about it, reducing the shame that kept it a secret. Sometimes reporting rates increase when we get better at accurately defining and measuring it ( I.e. Sweden, military, St. Louis police) but that does not mean the rates of the crimes actually increase. The lifetime prevalence rate from the CDC & office for victims of crime showed about 43% of women are sexually abused at some point in their life. This takes into account both child and adult sexual victimization. 1 in 6 men are sexually abused before the age of 18. It is rarely talked about. Men often minimize the experience and will say it wasn't abuse or "it wasn't that bad" because a part of them experienced sexual pleasure from the event, but yet they may find themselves acting out in ways similar to most trauma survivors later on. For reference, about 55-70% of people have experienced a traumatic event in their lifetime. 5% of men and 10% of women will meet diagnostic criteria for PTSD at some point. If you want to know more on prevalence rates, look up David Finkelhor. If you want to know more about changing views, look up Mary Koss. If you really want to understand trauma and risk, Take the ACE survey. HTTPS://acestoohigh.com/got-your-ace-score/ April is sexual assault awareness month
The number one predictor of how well survivors do in the long run is their level of social support. How can you be of the most help? Listen. Believe them. Check in on them, even if you worry it will upset them (thinking no one cares upsets them more. They are likely already thinking about it anyway.) Tell them it is not their fault. Don't align with the abuser. Don't interrogate them. Don't tell them what they should or should not have done or what you would have done. Don't tell them to just "Get Over It" this message will set back their recovery a long ways and likely disrupt your relationship with them. Remember healing is a process, not a race. There is no end point that a person can speed toward to be "done." Recovery may take months, years, or decades, and healing will likely be a lifelong process of integration. Be patient. Be kind. Related to my recent post, Huffington Post just published an article on survivors speaking out on how they were impacted by the election and how it mirrored their trauma experience. Worth a read.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/7-survivors-on-what-it-means-to-have-a-man-accused-of-sexual-assault-in-the-white-house_us_583c7163e4b01ba68ac5732a Given all the talk about sexual assault and trauma survivors coming forward about past allegations of abuse, the presidential election has shown a spotlight once again onto sexual abuse and the ill treatment of survivors.
Although there is a benefit to increasing the national conversation on sexual assault towards the goal of improving treatment for survivors and reducing overall victimization rates, there is a profound impact on trauma survivors who find their PTSD symptoms retriggered. In the weeks leading up to the election there was increased reports of trauma survivors calling crisis lines like RAINN and therapists who treat trauma survivors were reporting high levels of distress and increased PTSD symptoms among clients who were previously doing better. Survivors reported experiencing an increase in flashbacks, resurgence in nightmares, recalling aspects of the trauma at unwanted times in intrusive ways, heightened levels of fear, discomfort with leaving the house, and reminders of shame/guilt/and inappropriate self-blame prompted by victim blaming talk in the media. There was even discussion of how the election was triggering perpetrators as well, resulting in the possibility of people being retraumatized. Whether evidence truly supports the connection between the election and victimization rates or symptom rates, it is clear to people on the ground level that the election and post-election has sent a wave of aftershocks through the sexual trauma world and women in general. Since 43% of women experience sexual abuse or assault at some time in their life according to the Office fir Victims of Crime and CDC, then it is imperative that the public be aware of how trauma survivors across the world may be impacted by, sometimes unknowingly by current events.h Stanford Campus Sexual Assault Survivor Gives a Voice to Victims who are Silenced and Revictimized6/7/2016 Thanks to social media, the public finally gets a glimpse of what sexual trauma looks like. A survivor of campus sexual assault, who was found unconscious behind a dumpster with her dress pushed up over her shoulder and her underwear and bra removed , while her attacker fled and was pinned by two good summaritans who had caught him in the act has now spoken about her experience in a very moving impact statement. There are so many tragedies in the situation, one being that had it not been for the witnesses this case would likely never have gone to trial, and a brutal rapist would have gone free to harm others. She or he would be blamed for drinking too much. Their sexual behavior would be called into question and just as in her case, it would be reframed as a consensual act. That she was never notified of what was happening in her case or what even happened to her while she was unconscious and had to learn about it online truly breaks my heart. The fact that the man was only given 6 months prison time may seem awful, but most victims will never see justice. The perpetrators often go unpunished, the crimes left univestigated, or unprosecuted, or the sentences are merely probation. The fact that the perpetrators father defends his violence as "20 minutes of action" that should be ameliorated with him giving lectures on the dangers of alcohol and promiscuity ( as if alcohol made people into savage rapers of the unconscious) only adds insult to injury and perfectly encapsulates the blinding of rape culture. This case is no anomally. It just highlighted the true brokenness of our society and its justice system.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/06/stanford-sexual-assault-case-victim-impact-statement-in-full?CMP=fb_gu This week was the National YWCA Week Without Violence that recognized the committment of our programs to end violence and educate the public about different types of community violence. I participated as a speaker and panel discussion with my colleagues. This week was also the Missouri Coalition against Domestic and Sexual Violence Annual conference wher I also presented a workshop on "What Sexual Trauma Survivors Wish You Knew." Between the two events I hadthe privilege of meeting many survivors and committed professionals who are working to end sexual a use and revuse the traumatic impact on survivors. I am honored to be among so many unsung heroes as they work for social change.
This August I will be presenting in San Diego at the Institute of Violence, Abuse, and Trauma International Summit as well as attending the National Partnership for Ending Interpersonal Violence annual Think Tank.
I will be presenting on Empowerment Tools with Sexual Trauma Survivors : Challenging Guilt and Self-blame and another presentation with our Disability Sex Educator, Jessica Naslund on " Invisible Victims: Sexual Trauma Prevention and Treatment with the Disabled Community.. For more info or to register go to www.ivat.org Free Group Therapy for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse or Sexual Assault or Rape in ST. Louis1/23/2015 At the YWCA Women’s Resource Center we offer several different types of free group therapy options: Teens who are survivors of child sexual abuse or rape- Wednesdays 3:30-5:30 pm. Coping Skills Group, 4 week, open drop-in group, Call to register, no screening/intake required. New groups every month Child Sexual Abuse Survivor Group, 13 weeks, closed group – Recruiting now We also offer an 8 week Sexual Assault Support Group in Collaboration with a Woman’s Place, being held at A Woman’s Place in St. Louis City on Morganford, Tuesdays 10am -12 pm Starting February 24th Rape & Sexual Assault Survivors Group, 12 weeks, closed group- Mondays 6-8 pm, Starting January 26th Healthy Sexuality group, 8 weeks, closed group- To be announced Sexual Health education groups for the disabled (SHADE program)- Contact Christina if your live in the County or Jessica if you live in the City |
AuthorSMegan Garza, MA, LMFT is a certified Specialist in Treating Trauma at a Supervisory level and is Licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist. She specializes in work with sexual abuse survivors. Archives
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