ACE's and Ethnic Oppression

I see that the article I was talking to my friend about has just been posted in Events - I also trawled through and found some research that is talked about here regarding Alaska .... however nothing looking at the mindfulness/narrative/exercise links and large group dancing etc ... I am incredibly grateful to the ACE's Community for this forum and to the great information that is passed on. 

Katrice Horsley posted:

I see that the article I was talking to my friend about has just been posted in Events - I also trawled through and found some research that is talked about here regarding Alaska .... however nothing looking at the mindfulness/narrative/exercise links and large group dancing etc ... I am incredibly grateful to the ACE's Community for this forum and to the great information that is passed on. 

 Yes, I think you are on to something here!

This is my new blog looking at Community Ritual and ACE's. http://www.katalysttales.co.uk/blog

Hi Katrice, The "trans-generational" genetic, etc. trauma research that Rachel Yehuda, et al, had done at Mount Sinai Hospital, involving Halocaust survivors and their children, last year, may provide you with suitable research parameters.

From what I read of the Canadian Solicitor General's report on the Aboriginal Schools [in Canada], which I perused at our National Center for PTSD Library, a couple of years ago, there may be some helpful information there. I tried to find that report again, a few weeks ago, at the PTSD library, and it was not shelved, nor did I find a sign-out card in its designated card catalog number/place. You may be able to locate it, on line, as well as other materials, using the search terms in the [NCPTSD Library] PILOTS (Published International Literature On Traumatic Stress) USER'S GUIDE. Search Terms may include: "Aboriginal People", "Native People", as well as a host of other terms. I believe their website is         www. ptsd.va.gov, but I could be mistaken. You can google "PILOTS (Published International Literature On Traumatic Stress)" and you should be able to make some headway. When I pulled up the new [ProQuest] PILOTS page, all I found was "Aboriginal Australians". ...I just conferred with our public library reference librarian, and we found: "Mapping the Healing Journey: the final report of a First Nation Research Project on Healing Canadian Aboriginal Communities    APC 21 CA (2002)" ("This report  is made possible through a joint contribution by the Solicitor General Canada and the Aboriginal Healing Foundation"). Hope this helps. My reference librarian just handed me pages of: "Canada, Aboriginal Peoples, and Residential Schools...They Came for the Children" by The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2012)    [ ISBN 978-1-100-19995-5 ] (website: www.trc.ca

thank you so much Robert!

A lot of this is because the disease model "treat depression with drugs to prevent suicide" approach works even less in that community than in white America. Which means that the ACES Connection people shouldn't go in there in push their message either.  The junk on this site of "You have a broken brain, trauma has screwed you up for life, build some resiliency but we won't tell you how to build resiliency or address the root cause of oppression." 

SAMHSA has some concrete reccommendations.

http://store.samhsa.gov/produc...ng-Adults/SMA10-4480

Corinna West posted:

A lot of this is because the disease model "treat depression with drugs to prevent suicide" approach works even less in that community than in white America. Which means that the ACES Connection people shouldn't go in there in push their message either.  The junk on this site of "You have a broken brain, trauma has screwed you up for life, build some resiliency but we won't tell you how to build resiliency or address the root cause of oppression." 

SAMHSA has some concrete reccommendations.

http://store.samhsa.gov/produc...ng-Adults/SMA10-4480

Corinna,

I "liked" your comment for your emphasis on addressing the root cause of oppression.  It is institutions rather than only parents or only children of parents; It is adult capacity building, overall.   Your comment reinforces my understanding that the major "intractable" risk factors for ACEs are indeed able to be addressed IF and only IF decision makers, thought leaders, advocates, and policy makers get real about the How and Now of actually changing the social constructs and inter-generational teachings and institutional practices that put some folk at purely discretionary risk for ACEs that (thus far) require a steady diet of inter-generational "resilience" and "patience." 

I am specifically speaking of inter-generational poverty of Black folks in America (a systemic impoverishment that has clearly determinable lines of socio-political and sociocultural cause).  Sociocultural practices and socio-political cause being federal, state, local policies/practices that continue to disproportionately dehumanize and circumscribe the participation, achievement, longevity, and opportunities of engagement for said population. 

While discussion of ACEs adds to the dialogue of advocacy and "progress", I become increasingly concerned that we can talk much about ACEs and still miss the ongoing call for "transformative change" which will only be properly imparted by putting action behind three How/Now prongs of transformation: cause, accountability, and capacity building.  

Pamela,  Perhaps we can amend the ACA (Obamacare) and restore the "Consumer Majorities" which we had under the National Health Planning and Resources Development Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-641), before the Reagan administration gutted the funding for that type of "Citizen Participation" in Health Planning and Resource Development.

Hi Robert.  I would be in utter shock if legislators had the ethical integrity to enact such law to mandate the type of primary socialization or re-socialization required to address the transformation I mentioned above.  The Elementary and Secondary Education Act and many other child, family, and education legislation is reauthorized/initiated often enough to have long ago mandated anti-racist values and lived-experience in child/family/educational content, policy, and practices.   It would seem we keep taking the same bite of the same elephant, while too frequently denying evidence of his existence.  With that said, IF the Act you referenced here had those priorities of re-socialization and anti-racist values, it would be worth considering.  I don't know that even the traumatized populations always have the strength and (especially) support of listeners to speak plainly about what they feel is required for transformation rather than tentative "progress."  Empowering their voices and creating an environment of trust and respect for the reality of the experience and perception of historical/racial trauma survivors will enable traumatized people to participate in processes (like the law your referenced) for parallel recovery and development. 

Jennifer Mourrain posted:

.... "Building resiliency" is meaningless rhetoric if there is no infrastructure to support its sustainability.  And at the same time, the concept itself seems to be an oxymoron, because if you have a community that supports its inhabitants then why would you need to build resiliency in the first place?  

Jennifer,

What a thoughtful and excellent question.  It suggests that resilience is not the ultimate goal--as it is often, though perhaps unintentionally, framed to be.  Rather, resilience is but an 'immediate care' strategy as we diligently and urgently transform society and its structures/processes/practices such that survivors of historical/racial trauma have a norm of health and equity.   This conceptualization situates resilience en route to action upon the socialization structures/processes/practices that ultimately cause(d) inequity and racial trauma.