What is Trauma?

Trauma is a response to a stressful event which dramatically reduces your ability to cope and can lead to a flood of social, emotional and academic difficulties. Trauma can show in many forms, commonly as shock or denial, as well as long-term effects like flashbacks, panic attacks, headaches, or unpredictable emotions. To specify what trauma can look like and how it can be treated, it is important to recognize that there are several forms of trauma:

Emotional Trauma is the result of experiencing events so stressful that they take away one’s ability to feel safe and secure
Acute Trauma arises from a single accident
Chronic Trauma is the result of a repeated or prolonged occurrence of the stressful event
Complex Trauma results from exposure to multiple types of traumatic experiences, often personally invasive
Secondary Trauma is a response that can come from being a witness or listener to someone else’s stressful or traumatic event

The Trauma Awareness Steering Committee (TASC)

The Trauma Awareness Steering Committee (TASC) is a group of professionals in Clare and Gladwin Counties that was created to build a resilient, trauma-informed community with a zero-tolerance policy for violence to ensure our counties are a safe place to live, learn, and flourish. The team is made up of representatives from the local child advocacy center, local schools, mental health, law enforcement, and more. Our mission is to limit the long-term effects of trauma, to engage the community by spreading awareness, encouraging resilience, strengthening social support networks, as well as providing prevention education and intervention.

THE ACE`S

ACE’s, or adverse childhood experiences, are the result of various forms of abuse, neglect, and dysfunction experienced in early childhood. ACE’s are linked to health problems, mental illness, and substance use problems in adulthood. They are very common, especially for women and people from racial/ethnic minority groups. The more ACE’s we experience, the more likely we are to experience health problems, social and emotional impairment, and more. Some examples of an ACE are being abused by a parent, growing up with divorced/separated parents, and having a parent or guardian with mental health or substance abuse problems.

ACEs Can Be Prevented

Some action steps we can take as a community to prevent ACEs are:

Become trauma informed and spread awareness on the long-term effects of trauma
Adopt and support policies in the workplace that improve family systems and allow for a more fitting work-life balance such as paid family leave and flexible work schedules
Improve access to high-quality childcare
Increase connections for adults throughout the community to provide comfort and support in their journey of being a caregiver
Reduce stigma around seeking help for struggles of parenting or mental health issues such as substance misuse, depression, or suicidal thoughts

Promote safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments where children live, learn, and play

Preventing ACEs can reduce negative outcomes in adulthood and help children and adults thrive and potentially:

Lower risk for conditions like depression, asthma, cancer, and diabetes in adulthood
Reduce risky behaviors such as smoking or other substance misuse
Improve education and job opportunities

Awareness of the long term effects and providing support to caregivers and adults in the community so ACEs are not passed down from generation to generation