Understanding Trauma
Trauma is a condition characterized with helplessness and fear among the victims resulting from exposure to extraordinary life events that leads to either physical or psychological threats. Trauma can result from either events that took place in the past or from a recent incident, which demonstrates that time is not a factor in determining whether an individual becomes a victims. Such signs include negative moods, avoidance of cues associated with trauma, intrusive thoughts linked to the traumatic event, and sensitive to environments considered to have a stimuli effect. Individuals can acquire trauma from various experiences including natural disasters, wars, accidents, criminal victimization, and exposure to violence within a family or in the community. Children are likely to demonstrate the impact of trauma even after they grow older since the signs and symptoms associated with the condition are more prevalent (Levenson, 2017). Children from dysfunctional family are at a higher risk of experiencing trauma when they grow up. Other associated risk factors that risks children into experiencing trauma include poverty, death of a close person, bullying, illnesses, as well as physical and sexual abuse. For instance, a study suggests that children from military families experience trauma if they lose their family members who work as servicemen or when they are consistently deployed to new work areas (Sories et al., 2015). However, children tend to acquire some adaptive measures that guide them through the grieving period until they fully recover.
Importance of Safety
Safety is essential when dealing with members of a society at the risk of having experienced trauma at some point in their lives. Safety begins when social workers acknowledge that a certain individual experiences some trauma because it creates an opportunity to establish a relationship between social service workers and the victim. The relationship should target at building a safe environment for the victim as a way of providing relief from the traumatic experience and the fear that it brings (Brown et al., 2017).. The social workers have a responsibility of ensuring that trauma victims live in a safe environment that lacks attributes that might make the victim feel threatened. Consequently, creating such a safe environment plays a significant role in making individuals gain confident and suppress their fears aimed at living a quality life. Furthermore, it is essential to promote safety by using a language that caters for the needs of the people, which plays an essential role in calming down the victims since it provides them with assurance of being better individuals.
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Building Safe Relationship
Building safe relationships with individuals that have endured traumatic events is key in providing assurance of a better life. It is critical that social service workers build a relationship with victims that will make it easier for them to express their fears and be guided through the healing process. Levenson (2017) proposes that a good relationship is characterized with some values including respect, trust, empowerment, and allowing the victims the freedom to make their own choices. Furthermore, the empowerment value require the social workers should refrain from forcing the victims to quit their behavior. Respect enables the social worker to develop a relationship that does not intimidate or shame the victim while trust is an essential virtue because it creates the foundation of the relationship. Instead, the social workers should focus on highlighting the importance of resilience, which will trigger the victim to develop the urge of becoming a better person. Finally, it is essential that the social worker allows the client to make decisions regarding the choices they make concerning their situation. That means that the client should not be forced to engage in a practice that one does not approve.
Theory Review
Theories of trauma emphasizes the need of applying traumatic principles among victims aimed at enhancing their lifestyle and making them better members of the society. The principles of trauma suggest that victims should have exposure to an environment that challenges them to become better people by counterattacking their predicaments. Furthermore, it is essential for social workers to ensure that they establish safe relationships with their clients by creating boundaries (Sories et al., 2015). Furthermore, it is essential to ensure that gender-specific services are available for individuals experiencing trauma because it helps to attend to gender specific attributes of trauma. It is essential that individuals experiencing trauma have access to a support system within their families and communities since it helps them being more resilient and overcome their fears.
Domestic Violence
Domestic violence plays a significant role in causing trauma among members of the society. The practice not only affects the individual that is subject to the unfortunate experience but also with people that get to witness it. For instance, whereas the violence might be directed towards one of the parents, it is possible that children in that family develops traumatic symptoms based on the events. Furthermore, the receiver of domestic violence is also at a greater risk of experiencing trauma, which can manifest through exhibition of mental disorders, substance abuse, depression, and to some extent some individuals commit suicide (Gregory et al., 2016). On the other hand, children growing in such dysfunctional are also likely to exhibit the signs of trauma even after they grow up. They might develop some fear towards one gender or they can also be problematic due to their engagement in violence. Consequently, the social workers have the responsibility of ensuring that they provide help to children associated with dysfunctional families and provide them with therapy aimed at enabling them become better members of the society.
References
Brown, J. D., King, M. A., & Wissow, L. S. (2017). The Central Role of Relationships with Trauma-Informed Integrated Care for Children and Youth. Academic Pediatrics , 17 (7), S94–S101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2017.01.013
Gregory, A. C., Williamson, E., & Feder, G. (2016). The Impact on Informal Supporters of Domestic Violence Survivors: A Systematic Literature Review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse , 18 (5), 562–580. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838016641919
Levenson, J. (2017). Trauma-Informed Social Work Practice. Social Work , 62 (2). https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swx001
Sories, F., Maier, C., Beer, A., & Thomas, V. (2015). Addressing the Needs of Military Children through Family-Based Play Therapy. Contemporary Family Therapy , 37 (3), 209–220. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-015-9342-x
