Unburdened by false humility, postmodern trauma activists claim to have understood for the first time what drives all of human suffering
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CATEGORY: GOVERNMENT PROJECTS: CITY  Erika Rajo, PsyD, trauma psychologist Source: WDSU News Read time: 1.8 minutes plus 1.2-minute video This Happened Seeds of NOLA Trauma Recovery Center opened in early 2024 to provide free treatment and case management services for victims of trauma. Their mission: The first-ever service aiming to reduce the chronic violence in New Orleans by preventing intergenerational transmission of trauma. Who Did This? The program is part of University Medical Center. Some or all of the funding was provided by the New Orleans Department of Health. The amount and duration of the funding was not announced. The Premise According to the Center’s website, their mission is “Rooted in principles of health equity and social justice, the center provides wraparound services to people whose lives have been disrupted by traumatic injury and violent crime.” The Center’s “trauma psychologist,” Erika Rajo, PsyD, asserted that much of the violence in New Orleans is due to “unhealed trauma.” She hopes to prevent PTSD, heal trauma symptoms, and prevent intergenerational transmission of trauma, which in turn will reduce violence in the city. The Center aims to eventually provide, all at no cost to clients, individual and family psychotherapy, support groups, psychiatric medication management, case management, assertive outreach, legal assistance, and violence interrupters in the community. Analysis Intergenerational transmission of trauma. This theory postulates that parents who develop psychological problems from traumatic experiences can pass those problems to their children through the interactions of daily living and the children absorb the problems into their own minds through repetition. The theory is widely accepted despite the only type of research support for it in humans comes from cross-sectional and retrospective studies. There are no pre-trauma prospective longitudinal studies to support it. In addition, the mechanism of how transmission occurs, whether psychological or biological, is speculative and controversial. Prevention of PTSD. There is little to no evidence that PTSD can be prevented or is even possible. It is a common misconception among clinicians that there is a window of time between trauma exposure and development of PTSD symptoms. Research is clear, however, that nearly all PTSD symptoms begin immediately following trauma exposure. There is a small amount of research evidence that PTSD severity can be substantially reduced (not entirely prevented) with early intervention, but it comes from pharmacological interventions in burn patients (i.e., morphine). Psychotherapeutic interventions at early intervention have all failed, and some may have worsened symptoms. Why Did This Happen? New Orleans is among a handful of large American cities that have experimented with so-called trauma-informed approaches to tackle intractable histories of violent crime and racial inequities. The efforts have yet to produce measurable benefits. Should This Be Attempted? Efforts such as this, plus similar efforts in Chicago, Baltimore, and Philadelphia have originated as orders from executive branches of city governments or from votes of city councils without much public debate. The brief discussions that have occurred at city councils have been from invited local stakeholders who uncritically support trauma-informed ideology. Most citizens are unaware that city funds are being spent on untested approaches with little to no research support. Like Trauma Dispatch? You can subscribe to our email notices of new posts on this page. Comments are closed.
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