Perry did a great job of thinking holistically of Sandy's care and being critical of how the system's actions, or inactions, can do further harm. It felt easy to me to be significantly displeased with Stan Walker, but then I reminded myself of the limitations he was also facing. 100 cases per worker with a high turnover and increasing demand is a systemic misfortune. These form of issues still occur today and it's important to be cognizant and critical of how these systems currently impact our clients as well as the efforts we can take on to help alleviate any further damage.
In my community, children were never debriefed about the traumatic things they experienced or witnessed. Children were a backdrop and were ever rarely referred to mental health treatment. These types of things were things that no one really spoke about and that everyone pretended didn't happen. I had never heard of the misbelief "children are resilient" but reflecting back on my upbring and widespread cultural feelings towards children and trauma, it fit right in. Therefore, it was refreshing to read of Perry's scientific explanation of how children are even more vulnerable to trauma due to their developing brain.
I am glad that the study and acceptance of PTSD have grown. It's difficult for me to truly grasp the concept that at one point, this diagnosis was only reserved for veterans. Perry's acknowledgment that any individual who has experienced trauma should have that trauma recognized in various domains of their life rang true to me. It's unfair and doing a disservice to dissociate the two when the individual is in school. In a school or criminal justice setting, I believe these negative past experiences are often overlooked and that these individuals are given automatic labels, are less likely to receive adequate treatment, and are likely to never process their trauma and develop negative coping skills.
In the following statement on page 36, I realized that I had not truly thought about the relation between the actual trauma event and the effects that followed. "Although the experiences that had scarred adults with PTSD were often relatively brief (usually lasting a few hours at most), their impact could still be seen in their behavior years - even decades- later." Like in the rat and stress example, that brief exposure could create a lot of symptoms for long periods of time. The fact that ONE HOUR of someone's life could change their entire behavior is astonishing. The more one thinks about it, the crazier the concept gets.
Perry's decription of the purpose of dissociation during the trumatic exposure was new information for me. Without dissociation, the heart rate would increase and people could bleed out due to their wounds. I always conceptualized dissociation as purely a psychological self-defense mechanism, so learning about how it has physical and innate benefits makes sense and emphasizes how our body has captivating systems to protect us. Perry tuaght me a lot in this chapter by effectively breaking down concepts and using basic examples to help foster deeper understanding.
Hi Kimberly,
ReplyDeleteI can relate to your experience of growing up in a community where children’s trauma was never addressed. For the first 18 years of my life, I lived in a small town where hanging out at Sonic was the “cool” thing to do. After my first field placement with CIS and observing the referral process, I recognized how much my hometown was in need. We had “school counselors”, but they did the normal school scheduling and administrative work. We didn’t have a social worker or LPC on campus, and I doubt we had one for the district. Brenham, TX is a small town; if we had one, I probably would have known. Over the course of my time in Brenham, my grade had two classmates die: one was kicked by a horse and one drowned. The entire baseball team witnessed their teammate drown. One of my close friends was even right next to him and tried to help him, but had to let go because he was being pulled down.
The event occurred during the summer, but I don’t think a lot would have been done in terms of counseling even if it was during the academic year. The team might have received a few days off of school. However, if a CIS were on campus, they would have check in with the team the first day of school. The same would have happened when the student who was kicked by a horse. My town did a wonderful job of celebrating the two students’ lives, but Facebook posts don’t often resolve the grief of losing a friend.
I have talked to friends who are teachers in Brenham now and they say it is even worse. Whether we were just unaware or the increase is real, the schools need a social worker. The feasibility of an outside counselor for some families may not be an option. Unfortunately, just like CPS, it all comes down to the allocation of funds.
I also found Bruce Perry’s sense of systems to be uplifting. In the case of Stan Walker, I appreciated that Bruce Perry took the time to explain his perspective in regard to his action with the boys in the residential treatment facility. Perry could have easily gotten defensive; however, he took the time to advocate on behalf of the children he was working with. In addition, I appreciate Stan Walkers ability to work within his scope of practice and learn from the expert (Bruce Perry) in the field. I empathize with your frustration around Walker’s actions and also identify with your empathy toward his situation at work. In regard to Sandy’s case, I found myself thinking really admiring Stan Walker because he reached out, asked questions and informed himself of what he could do for the betterment of her regardless of her court case. Between Walker and Perry, she was able to gain a huge floor of support that led to a better outcome that many would have expected.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, I appreciate the fact that you highlighted the quote from pg. 36. I too found this jaw-dropping (and very accurate) and even wrote about it in my own blog post. Working with my own adult clients, I have witnessed the impact that trauma can have one people decades later and it is astonishing. However, I think it is critical that we think carefully about this fact because I can see how it might be easy to slip into hopelessness. I think that Perry’s end to this chapter was a good reminder that hopelessness isn’t always warranted in cases of trauma.
Hi Kimberly! I enjoyed reading your post. I agree with your observation of Perry taking a more holistic approach in treating Sandy. When I first read “The Boy Raised as a Dog” I was struck by how Perry seem to approach his patients from a social work perspective. Obviously, many clinicians from the psychological perspective include pertinent information from a patient’s history when formulating a diagnosis and treatment plan but Perry seemed to have taken the idea of the patient’s environment to another level of scrutiny and understanding.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you in how easy it is to reflexively come to negative conclusions about agency employees and practitioners in the helping professions. It’s so important to consider the resources and funding available to those agencies before applying a harsh or rash judgement. Many folks are just doing the best they can with limited resources.
I’m glad too that there is a rising acceptance of the importance of past traumatic experiences and those that rise to the level of a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. It is amazing how traumatic experiences carry so much more weight when they occur while the brain is still developing and vulnerable. The idea that those experiences can actually have an impact that changes the brain’s physical dimensions is astounding and frightening. On the plus side, I believe it’s been demonstrated in studies that therapy can actually alter specific physical aspects of the brain for the better!