Essay Sample on Transgenerational Trauma and Black Lives Matter

Transgenerational trauma refers to trauma that can be transferred between generations. Transgenerational trauma is a psychological term that was coined a few decades ago in relation to research work that sort to assert that traumatic experiences can be passed through generations. This particular type of trauma is more complex and specific in that it affects a large population. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia experienced transgenerational trauma following the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families on orders of the Australian federal and state government agencies and church missions. This traumatic experience saw 11% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were born before 1972 separated from their families (Atkinson et al., 2014). Apart from the victims of this separation suffering immeasurable agony, research has established that indigenous Australian children who live in families that experienced this trauma are more likely than other children to suffer poor health and portray poor school experiences.

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This concept of intergenerational trauma relates well with the black Americans who were subjected to slavery and institutionalized racism. Research establishes that following this enslavement, a significant portion of black Americans experiences health problems to a large extent, which is not experienced by the white majority (Harfield et al., 2018). In an attempt to resolve this intergenerational trauma, the Black Lives Matters movement was formulated in 2013 to advocate the plight of black Americans in a fight for equality that entails challenging the current policy frameworks that sideline African Americans and make it much difficult for them to enjoy same privileges as the white majority (Atkinson et al., 2014). to tackle the transgenerational trauma inflicted on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia, the Closing the Gap (CTG) initiative was formulated by the Australian government in an agreement that sought to address the health employment and education inequalities that have affected indigenous Australians for decades (Markham et al., 2018).

The act by the Australian government in collaboration with various church mission societies to forcefully remove children of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities from their family has proved to be a catastrophic move that has resulted in intergenerational trauma. Originally, the racist government policies were intended to assimilate the Aboriginal people with white Australians. These destructive policies that were active between 1910 up to 1970s saw thousands of Aboriginal children removed from their homes and sent to institutions or adopted by white families or sent to foster homes (George et al., 2019). In the new settlements, the Aboriginal children were treated like slaves, where they worked without pay, denied the right to talk in their indigenous languages, and missed the opportunity of growing up with their families. Research has identified that these traumatic experiences have resulted in huge disparities between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the rest of Australian people. For instance, 1 in 7 of the survivors live with a profound or severe disability (Sarnyai et al., 2016). The research also indicates that this cohort of survivors experiences a high rate of dependency on government payments for survivors, they are more likely to be incarcerated and likely to have higher rates of unstable general health conditions. Today, the descendants of those who were removed from their families account for about 33% of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. 67% of this cohort has experienced a high rate of stress violence in the last one year, and discrimination in public institutions. In addition, 34 % of them have reported poor mental health (Brown, 2017).

Several initiatives have been put in place to address intergenerational trauma inflicted on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. One of these initiatives is the Close the Gap People's Movement that was spearheaded by of Aboriginal descent. Through the efforts of this movement, the Australian government agreed to create policies with a focus on a new national agenda aimed at achieving equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This process led to the formulation of Closing the Gap initiative (CTG) in 2008. According to Dudgeon et al., (2014), CTG initiative came up with several policies that were addressing the plight of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Here are the policies;

• To close the existing gap in life expectancy with a period of a generation.
• Close the gap by halving in mortality rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s children under five years within a decade.
• To avail access to education for all indigenous children under the age of 4 within a decade.
• Close the gap by halving in writing, reading, and numeracy achievements for Indigenous Australians within a decade.
• To close the gap by half in employment outcomes between non-indigenous and indigenous communities within a decade.

Although a number of these policies are yet to be achieved, several of them have been implemented, and the results have seen the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people improve, and the effects of intergenerational trauma begin to wear off. For instance, the mortality rate gap for newborn children between indigenous women and non-indigenous women has gradually reduced over the years. In addition, the life expectancy gap between non-indigenous and indigenous Australian women has as well reduced from one decade at the beginning of policy implementation to halve a decade by 2019 (Garner, 2017).

As a measure of ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people register with the CTG initiative, the government has rolled out benefits to encourage Aboriginal beneficiaries to register. One of the benefits is that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living with chronic diseases or those who are considered at risk of suffering the same are allowed free access to subsidized or free Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) medicine (Atkinson et al., 2010). Those who are eligible are required to have registered with CTG, where a co-payment measure plan is introduced immediately. With the CTG PBS measure plan, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can have access to co-payment relief or completely free prescriptions. The process of checking eligibility has been made easier by enrolling all the eligible Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in a digital database that can be accessed remotely. According to Calma (2005), to ensure that eligible Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders do not experience difficulty in accessing prescriptions, several groups have been commissioned to dispense CTG PBS prescriptions. They include private healthcare facilities that have been approved under the National Health Act section 94, all community pharmacies that have been approved, and suppliers who have received the National Health Act 1953 approval. This decentralization of prescription dispense centers has encouraged Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to access healthcare and hence improved their general health and wellbeing (Atkinson et al., 2010).

As a registered RN, I will apply compassion to improve the health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons experiencing Transgenerational trauma. For a start, it will be necessary to understand that generational trauma is complex that other types of trauma because it has been embedded into an individual's belief system, relationships, and behaviors. The experiences that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people went through will predispose them or their descendants not to trust the good intentions of those who are trying to help them because they are still hurting. Being compassionate, however, will go a long way in helping me better understand what my aboriginal patient is going through. In addition, applying compassion will help me understand their need (Hoffart, R., & Jones 2018). Such an approach will aid in acquiring a better awareness of any gap between my understanding and that of a patient concerning their health situation. Generally, treating a person who has generational trauma requires that a healthcare provider approach the problem in bits. Showing compassion, however, will see treatment choices developed, and the eventual option settled on to be acceptable to the patient's needs and expectations. Compassion can be expressed in diverse simple ways such as taking time to talk to patients about issues that relate to their health and even on matters that may be troubling them. This may apply especially with patients whose family is not available and does not have friends. Establishing a good rapport creates a bond of trust and friendship. With the good rapport in place, the patient will be willing to share what their needs are and be willing to accept the treatment options that are available to them.

References

Atkinson, J., Nelson, J., & Atkinson, C. (2010). Trauma, transgenerational transfer, and effects on community wellbeing. Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice, 135-144. https://doi.org/ 10.22605/RRH1667

Atkinson, J., Nelson, J., Brooks, R., Atkinson, C., & Ryan, K. (2014). Addressing individual and community transgenerational trauma. Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice, 2, 289-307. https://doi.org/10.1017/edp.2020.2

Brown, K. B. (2017). A Phenomenological Study To Explore Transgenerational Trauma: An Australian Aboriginal Perspective (Doctoral dissertation, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology). https://doi.org/10.1177/0020872819870585Calma. T. (2005). Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. Social Justice Report, 2005. ISSN 1321-11. Available at; https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-social-justice/publications/social-justice-report-5Dudgeon, P., Watson, M., & Holland, C. (2017). Trauma in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Population. Australian Clinical Psychologist, 3(1), 1741. https://doi.org// 10.1177/1039856218757637Garner, S. (2017). Surfing the third wave of whiteness studies: reflections on Twine and Gallagher. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40(9), 1582-1597. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2017.1300301

George, E., Mackean, T., Baum, F., & Fisher, M. (2019). Social determinants of Indigenous health and Indigenous rights in policy: A scoping review and analysis of problem representation. International Indigenous Policy Journal, 10(2).https://doi.org/10.18584/iipj.2019.10.2.4

Harfield, S. G., Davy, C., McArthur, A., Munn, Z., Brown, A., & Brown, N. (2018). Characteristics of Indigenous primary health care service delivery models: a systematic scoping review. Globalization and health, 14(1), 12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-018-0332-2Hoffart, R., & Jones, N. A. (2018). Intimate partner violence and intergenerational trauma among Indigenous women. International criminal justice review, 28(1), 25-44. https://doi.org/10.1177/1057567717719966Markham, F., Jordan, K., & Howard-Wagner, D. (2018). Closing the Gap Refresh: papering over the gaps or structural reform?. Closing the Gap Refresh ‘Have Your Say.' https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-08794-3

Sarnyai, Z., Berger, M., & Jawan, I. (2016). Allostatic load mediates the impact of stress and trauma on physical and mental health in Indigenous Australians. Australasian Psychiatry, 24(1), 72-75...