Women, Trauma, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in collaboration with Witness Justice and a number of other nonprofit and service provider organizations across the nation, recently unveiled new recommendations for treating women with histories of trauma and co-occurring mental health concerns and substance abuse, bringing new hope to millions of struggling women.
Survivors of violence have a variety of important needs and too often encounter roadblocks to the help they need or are presented with programs that are only partially helpful. Given the disturbing rate at which American women fall victim to violence, HHS's study provides a roadmap for positive and far-reaching change.
The guidelines are outlined in HHS's Women, Co-occurring Disorders and Violence Study (WCDVS). WCDVS provides new insights into a long-lasting problem, demonstrating that women with a history of trauma and co-occurring disorders would benefit greatly from more holistic, integrated counseling.
Untold millions of women suffer from physical and emotional trauma, and previous studies have shown that women with histories of trauma are at a much higher risk for co-occurring disorders. In fact, the coining of the term "co-occurring disorders" itself was prompted by the fact that mental health problems and substance abuse accompany trauma so often.
In 2002 alone, violent acts against almost 21 million women were reported. This is more than 101 times the estimated new number of breast cancer cases that same year and more than 83 times the estimated number of women who will die from a heart attack this year.
Part of the problem in addressing these concerns is that individual conditions are too often treated in isolation from the others, without a full understanding of their interrelationship, because the nature and impact of trauma itself remains untold, misunderstood, or neglected. This leaves many women to suffer tremendously as a result of misdiagnosis, mistreatment, an absence of integrated care, and a lack of a voice in their own treatment. In addition, most existing treatment programs and service systems do not systematically screen for or address trauma, despite the fact that they are likely to be serving trauma survivors. This prompted HHS to conduct WCDVS, through which the agency created guiding principles for positive change, including:
- Service providers must better recognize the presence of trauma, past and present, as a central concern in a woman's life.
- Women should be encouraged to play an active role in their healing process and provided with a better understanding of how to do so, from the onset.
- Symptoms are adaptations to traumatic events — a means by which survivors seek to manage the experience of trauma — and this coping behavior should be viewed as a strength rather than as a fault.
- Providers must understand how trauma is triggered and how to help women create safe "spaces" in which women can manage their symptoms.
- Providers should be mindful of the ways in which their own practices and policies might put women in danger, physically and emotionally, or bring about re-traumatization.
- There must be a more widespread and comprehensive recognition that violence and trauma significantly impact a person's belief system, self-perception, and relationships with others.
- Providers need to meet women where they "are" mentally and emotionally, with careful readiness assessments, pacing, and patience.
More information about the WCDVS is available at www.wcdvs.com. To find help treating trauma and co-occurring disorders, visit SAMHSA's Mental Health Services Locator and SAMHSA's Substance Abuse Treatment Facility Locator.
Witness Justice, through its Professional Consulting Program, created two (2) brochures on behalf of HHS as part of the WCDVS. The brochures are available to victims and their loved ones, and to service providers and victim advocates to share with their constituents.
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