Getting to the Root of the Problem: Supporting Clients With Lived-Experiences of Systemic Discrimination

Being aware of internal feelings allows an individual to “feel in charge of their body, their feelings, and their self” (van der Kolk, 2014, p. 96). “Autonomy” refers to an individual’s perception that they have control over themself and the environment around them – that they have agency over their life (van der Kolk, 2014). Resilience should not be thought of as an individual attribute, but as a process in which an individual adapts to deleterious exposure to maintain a basal level of well-being (Lerner et al., 2013; Southwick et al., 2014). The TTB includes a trauma response construct to ensure it is appropriately accounted for in trauma-related research endeavors. Historical harms are concentrated within specific communities that share a collective history and the burden of these harms is passed from generation to generation (Heart, 2003; Mohatt et al., 2014). Mohatt et al. summarize historical trauma as “a complex and collective trauma experienced over time and across generations by a group of people who share an identity, affiliation, or circumstance” (2014, p. 128).

Joint Impact of Trauma and Discrimination

They think this is their state of mind, just overlooking that behavior if we are not trained enough to see that this is very typical signs of trauma. TIC is a relatively new approach to most resettlement agencies, and, thus, lacking awareness or capacity for TIC is commonly reported. …… It’s not always the right time to tell someone ‘you might be suffering from the effects of trauma.’ But sometimes when people get out of crisis it can be helpful to just put a name on some of the things that they’re feeling. Refugees or not, or immigrants or asylum seekers, a lot of them are suffering from trauma or are in the stages of crisis. My job is to see client facing trauma, so a lot of times psychoeducation component could definitely be helpful because when people come into my office. A clinician in an immigrant family service center described TIC as a guiding principle throughout her support for clients, stating,

Racism and discrimination are chronic stressors that have demonstrated a longstanding and significant association with poorer mental and physical health (Paradies et al., 2015); however, COVID‐19 has amplified the associations among structural racism, social risk factors, and health (Egede et al., 2020). Recent data show that the frequency and stress of experiences of discrimination predict an increase in both COVID‐19 illness severity and the number of persistent symptoms, even after controlling for sociodemographic factors and mental and physical health comorbidities (Thomason et al., 2021). Empowerment of disenfranchised and marginalized individuals and communities in both research and practice is also a key aspect in mitigating trauma’s impact (Cattaneo & Goodman, 2015). Furthermore, we must acknowledge the importance of psychosocial and political power in determining https://www.umassmed.edu/TransitionsACR/resources/culturally-competent-mhc-to-LGBTQIA/additional-resource-links/ risk for exposure to trauma, its impact on health and the availability and utilization of appropriate interventions (CSDH, 2008).

Individual and interpersonal trauma

To fully encompass meaningful possibilities for resilience, career practitioners should not solely focus on individualistic viewpoints, given that BIPOC clients may draw on community resources and support for resilience (Blustein & Guarino, 2020). Across the lifespan, chronic stress from trauma can increase the risk for mortality and comorbidity of physical and mental health disorders (Powers & Duys, 2020). Researchers have identified that marginalized populations, such as BIPOC communities, have disproportionate rates of death from the virus and are identified with an increased need for accessible mental health services (Fortuna et al., 2020; Litam & Hipolito‐Delgado, 2021).

What Mental Health Professionals Can Do to Help

The fourth model, Active Take-Up Advocacy, incorporates psychodynamic principles and social work tenets into a new advocacy framework. The multifaceted nature of advocacy has led to the development of various models of advocacy practice, most of them in the context of case advocacy. The International Federation of Social Workers’ (IFSW) global definition of social work and the National Association of Social Workers’ (NASW) code of ethics strengthen the profession’s commitment to rights advocacy (IFSW, 2014; NASW, n.d.). Advocacy of rights has been described as an integral element of the social work profession from its inception (Dalrymple & Boylen, 2013). Next, we focus on the original ATA model (Krumer-Nevo, 2020), elucidating existing components that align with trauma-informed principles and suggesting trauma-informed guidelines that should be integrated into a new trauma-informed model (TI-ATA).

• While in general where the psychometric properties of the included measures are reported on, these are adequate, however, not all studies report the psychometric properties and 4 of these do not report any reliability.
• In particular, groups vary in terms of historical relationships with the dominant group, visibility and controllability of the identity (Quinn et al., 2014), as well as entrenched norms and belief systems that enable particular meaning-making frameworks (Barreto and Ellemers, 2005).
• Traumatic stress refers to the persistent reactions that occur following exposure to extreme adversity that overwhelm one’s ability to cope effectively (Donish, Bray, & Gerwitz, 2016; Magruder, Kassam-Adams, Thoresen, & Olff, 2016; NCTSN, 2019).
• This paper aims to discuss barriers for effective PTSD treatments, primarily in low- and middle-income countries, and identify several important future directions for reducing the burden of PTSD in traumatized populations.