Transcript Look Back to Move Forward - Wisconsin Child Welfare

Look Back to Move Forward
how historic institutional policies and systems impact People
we serve.
Karen M. Lane
Disability Rights Wisconsin
&
C.J. Doxtater
End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin
February 24-25, 2014
What is Historical Trauma?
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Trauma and trauma responses experienced by
groups & individuals to repeated oppression
upon the cultural & personal values.
◦ Oppression: an act, state or feeling of being
oppressed.
◦ Cumulative psychological wounding over the
lifespan and generations.
◦ Resulting in Historical Unresolved Grief.
Historical Trauma Response
Historical Trauma Response is the
response to massive group trauma.
 Observed among Native American
populations, African Americans and
Holocaust survivors and descendants.
 Proposition:

◦ Historical Trauma Response also exists among
people with psychiatric disabilities and other
disability groups.
What relevance does understanding
HT have for New Horizons?

Training goals:
◦ to provide a framework for understanding
“Sanctuary Trauma”, and
◦ to recognize that understanding Historical
Trauma will help us realize that Sanctuary
Trauma does not happen in a vacuum.
My Grandpa Bonnin – who started me on the
journey of understanding historical trauma
Grandpa told me horrific stories of his experiences while in boarding school.
Historical Trauma and People with
Disabilities
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Many years later, I was diagnosed with schizoaffective
disorder while experiencing domestic violence.
I was removed from my home.
I was forcibly medicated.
I was forced to live in a group home that was in
another town on the other side of the county.
Everything I did and said was written down as if
everything I did and said was not normal.
I was very frightened in this unfamiliar situation and
place.
I became skeptical of the mental health system and
domestic violence services and their ability to
provide assistance to me.
Things that make you go hmmm…
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A challenge was voiced:
◦ How has historical trauma impacted people
with disabilities?
◦ How is that impact manifested today?
◦ How is historical trauma promulgated currently
and passed down intergenerationally?
Asylum and Boarding School: A Comparison
Appleton County Asylum for the
Insane
Indian School- Sherman Institute
Riverside, CA
From www.calie.org
From Wikipedia
A Comparison continued…
Waverly Hills Sanatorium
Louisville, KY
Photos from Wikipedia
Boy’s dormitory
Santa Fe Indian School, 1906
Mass Murder
Hadamar Hospital, Germany
Third Reich “Useless Eaters”
Wounded Knee Massacre
Hadamar Hospital photo courtesy of the Holocaust Museum. Massacre
at Wounded Knee courtesy of Wikipedia.
Mass Death
Central State Hospital Cemetery
Haskell Boarding School Cemetery
Photos courtesy of Wikipedia.
Uncollected Cremains
Disrespect for the dead.
Native American Burial Ground -- park with
picnic & playground in Rice Lake, WI
Disrespect for the dead
What are cultures of disabilities, i.e.,
Disability Culture?
People with all different kinds of disabilities
sharing a lot of things in common.
 Most people with disabilities do not have parents
with disabilities.
 Historical trauma is transmitted by laws, policies,
and social mores more than by ethnic or familial
transmission.
 ACE studies: can be transmitted via familial
intergenerational transmission and epigenetics.
 It is learned by individual and collective
experiences.
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Historical Trauma:
A Broad Comparison
Native American
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First Contact/Invasion/War
Period
Subjugation/Reservation/
Boarding School Period
Forced Relocation/
Termination Period
-- Yellow Horse Brave Heart (2000)
People with Disabilities
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Neglect/Killing Period
Poor House/Work House/
Asylum/Institutionalization
Period
Deinstitutionalization/
Community Treatment
1st
Group
1st
contact
Subjugation
Oppressor/
Parens Patriae
2nd Group
Oppressed
MASS TRAUMA
Physical/Psychological
Violence
Economic
Destruction
Cultural
Disposition
Acute &
Chronic
Forced
Treatment
Loss of
resources
Loss of
legal rights
Loss of cultural
roles, language,
religion, etc.
Segregation/
Displacement
Boarding
School
Asylum
Congregate
settings
FIRST OR PRIMARY GENERATION
First or Primary Generation
Secondary or Subsequent generations
Trauma Response
Recovery
Healing
Vertical Oppression
Horizontal oppression
Values
Resilience
Spirituality
Physical
Psychological
Social
Past -----------------------Present
Historical Policies
Social Discrimination
Population
-------------------------------Individual
Sanctuary Trauma
Impact of disability/ableism/racism
Life Stage
Event
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Crazy-making4
Chronic
Life Course
Modes of Transmission
Psychological
 Genetic
 Environmental
 Psycho-social
 Social/Economic/Political Systems
 Legal & Social Discrimination
 Micro-aggression
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Historical Trauma Today: Why It Matters
•How might the experience of Crazy-making4 impact
people you work with today?
•Lack of trust in government and government-funded
public services, including domestic violence programs and
human service programs.
•Domestic violence and disability service agencies can be
experienced or perceived as just another agency to
transmit betrayal/historical trauma.
Some Questions for New Horizons to Consider
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How might historic and current institutionalization policy and
practice impact individuals you serve?
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Are your staff aware of HT and its impact?
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Consider how forced treatment and compliance impact
people with disabilities and their approach to helping
relationships…how might they perceive your help?
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Does your organization consider, assess, and prepare
staff regarding HT and HT response in the people you
serve?
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Who defines what is abusive and violent towards the
individuals seeking your services? Have you considered
sanctuary or betrayal trauma is a form of violence?
Confronting & Transcending Historical Trauma
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Embrace and encourage self-determination
and self-actualization through:
◦ Tribal/Group ritual, language, and traditions;
◦ Self-determination;
◦ Discovering your own stories and inventing new
ones; and
◦ Practicing one’s own religion/spirituality.
Examples of a Group Activity to
Transcend Historical Trauma
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Mad Pride
Reclaiming Dignity and Culture
Intentional Peer Support
United Nations officially recognized the use of
institutionalization, forced treatments, and use of
restraints and seclusion on people with disabilities as
torture.
◦ -- March 4, 2013.
Examples of a Group Activity to Transcend
Historical Trauma continued…
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White Bison Society
◦ - Minnesota Initiative
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Critical Thinking Centers
◦ - Canadian Tribal Initiative
In Closing…
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Historical Trauma is not only about what
happened in the past.
It’s part of a person’s overall framework that
impacts:
◦ how they may interact with us,
◦ how we – together -- navigate the use of power
in our relationships, and consequently
◦ how accessible our services are to achieve the
individual’s identified outcomes.
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By being trauma-informed, you will reduce
re-traumatizing individuals who seek your
services and increase safety.
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Thank you!