Michael Barlow
Did you know the severity of the impact COVID-19 had on people was influenced by their childhood and their social identities? Despite its global impact, the effects were far more drastic for certain communities and populations of people. In the recent study “Collective Trauma: Childhood Abuse, Perceived Discrimination, and COVID-19,” the authors critically analyze their research, highlighting the importance for health care practitioners who work with clients who had adverse childhood experiences, to consider their stories in understanding the significant increase in challenges they faced during COVID-19 or other collective traumas.
Why is this Important ?
The length of this study extended over 20 years and investigated how the impact of COVID-19 for people with childhood trauma and PTSD, and who experience perceived discrimination on a daily basis, was more substantial than others. This study reports heightened PTSD symptoms that a person who experienced childhood trauma would have during a pandemic or collective trauma, despite it being, or not being, an actual threat or challenge to that person. This research highlights the difficulties a person who experiences perceived discrimination faces in accessing services and resources during collective traumas. Thus, marginalized and discriminated populations had greater difficulties surviving adequately during COVID-19. While there are an infinite amount of factors that come into play to determine what kind of experiences have greater impact, the underlying theme in this study was to prove that people with childhood trauma and difficulties regulating from life stressors are increasingly negatively impacted by collective traumas than other people, whether they are directly influenced by those events or not.
So What ?
For those who work with people with traumatic pasts or who struggle with systemic oppression and marginalization, the results of this research are significant. The knowledge that some people are increasingly affected by these collective traumatic events gives us the ability to approach our clients with more understanding of the complexity behind their thoughts, emotions, and stressors. Furthermore, this study underlines that COVID-19 can not be viewed as the root cause for mental and emotional struggles for people with PTSD, childhood trauma, and perceived discrimination during a pandemic.
Utilizing a trauma-informed approach with clients needs to stretch beyond the immediate stressors our clients are experiencing, and include perceived discrimination and childhood trauma. Doing so, guarantees seeing our clients with more empathy and cultural sensitivity, helping to foster a safer and more comfortable environment and help build deeper rapport, thus having more impactful interventions. Integrating these results into practice should begin by integrating childhood histories into an assessment to gain a better understanding of our client’s past. It also involves the need for education for practitioners to learn more about signs of trauma , and by always actively and mindfully listening to the things our clients say, and the things they don’t say. By utilizing these into practice, we can corroborate our use of self and their history as effective tools to determine the most effective form of therapy or intervention that would benefit them the most. To conclude, this study re-iterates the demand for a diverse understanding of trauma, that combines systemic inequities and childhood traumas as being large contributing factors to people’s unique experiences during collective traumas like COVID-19.