Impact of Transgenerational trauma in Australia Assignment Sample

Introduction

Australia is known as a multicultural country as it is home to some of the oldest cultures of the world. Rich culture and diversity of the people in Australia are considered as one of the strengths of the country. Since 1995, many people have migrated to the country in the hope to get shelter and a better lifestyle. These community people are regarded as Aboriginals or Indigenous groups of people. This essay aims to understand the impact of transgenerational trauma in a culturally and linguistically diverse population and how it is laid upon to children by their parents. It also describes therapeutic approaches that facilitate healing and recovery of the individuals of the community.

Definition of Transgenerational or Intergenerational Trauma

Transgenerational trauma is not a mental illness rather it is a psychological condition that refers to experiences and symptoms associated with historical events and intense pressure generated due to some emotional and physical causes. It overwhelms a person's ability to cope up with situations like physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Responses of the adults in such situation may vary and may not be related to the psychotic breakdown and post-traumatic stress. Transgenerational and intergenerational stresses are mostly seen in Aboriginals and indigenous community people (Bakó & Zana, 2020). Both the terms are the same and must not be treated differently. It is a physiological term which states that trauma can be transmitted to generations that is a parent if suffering from stress or is overwhelmed he or she will transmit that same trait to their descendants.

This makes the life of the children worst as they have to live up to the level of stress daily in their life since they are born. Let’s suppose some children do not receive this stress in such cases the probability of children getting affected later will be the same as in the early stages when the child was in the womb of the mother. These children can get affected easily and may suffer from similar stress when they encounter any type of risk in their life (Brown, 2017). Symptoms of intergenerational trauma are found in the survivor of the trauma. It is very difficult to identify intergenerational trauma as it is hard to recognize and diagnose by clinicians.

Cause of Traumatic Disorder in Aboriginals

Aboriginals suffer greatest adversities, strongest resistance from the Australian community, family violence, separation from families and removal from their native land. The impact of the damage disturbs the mental and emotional wellbeing of the person. The rate of misusing substance, increase in criminal activities, the surge in suicidal attempts are some social determinants that indicates that a large number of people are suffering from deeply distressing experience know as transgenerational trauma (Atkinson, Nelson, Brooks, Atkinson, & Ryan, 2014). It is seen in indigenous families that trauma passes from one generation to the other with devastating effects. The poor condition of the people, mental health problems, incarceration is some more problems to which these communities are directly linked. The causes of new trauma are increasing in Aboriginals and indigenous community people. And this is ultimately resulting in a vicious cycle.

On analyzing mental health problems in the indigenous community it was found that the pain suffered by the community people is unforgettable. They cannot forget the memories they have gone through in past. The stress experienced by them is then passed on to the children and further, they transfer it to theirs stating how can we expect our children to forget the pain and trauma that we have been through (Grand & Salberg, 2016). William Shakespeare in the Merchant of Vince quoted Sins of the father are laid upon the children. The experience of trauma experienced by the children is mainly due to historical events and cultural disruption associated with colonization of indigenous land.

Judy Atkinson in the journal claimed that there are very few indigenous children who grow in a safe environment. Most of the children experience the transgenerational trauma. Even if these children are protected from the past events they get exposed to traumatic condition f they experience an accident, family violence or abuse. This is why utmost care is required to protect them from traumatic conditions which may provoke the hidden trauma that has been passed on to them. The effects experienced under these children is severe and long-lasting. These children can be healed only by providing them with the trauma specific-care to aid their healing.

Effects of Trauma Experienced in Aboriginals

It is seen through research that everyone responds differently in traumatic disorder. It is identified in the research that trauma at an early stage of life can be severe and may affect the brain development of the children. In adults, the impact of transgenerational trauma is different in comparison to the children (Wilson, Reilly & Mackean, 2018). It is because trauma in adults alter a mature brain in which the neurological connections have already been established. The impact on developing brain is comparatively worse than the mature ones. It is seen that children suffering from transgenerational trauma can slow down their growth by affecting the neurological system completely.

Through analysis, it was found that trauma disturbs the orientation of survival and learning mechanism. Both the processes work is different. Learning mechanism engages itself in the development of neuronal synaptic connections while survival mechanism protecting the body from the potential dangers. (Townsend, McIntyre, Wright, Lakhani, White, & Cullen, 2019). There are various kinds of trauma-related illnesses managed by psychologists to reduce the impact created by them on the individuals. It is identified in research that on an average Indigenous Australians are more likely to die ten years before in comparison to Australians. It is because the mental pressure and grievances to be away from their children is the root cause of the tension and stress in the community. The racist government policies of the past show that during that period one out of every three children were taken by the government or were raced by white Australians. The condition of the stolen generation and their descendants is worse as they have suffered the most in their life.

Risks Associated with Trauma

There is a lot of risks associated with these people. Some of the risk related to the body includes chronic and communicable diseases, poor or non-nutritional diet and getting addicted to smoking. Risk factors in terms of mild emotions include mental illness, unemployment, racism, cognitive impairments and so on. Stress among Aboriginals or indigenous community increase due to the absence of a family member, child neglect and child abuse, children in out of home care and family violence. The risk factor in connection to the community is family feuding, lateral violence, lack of local services, lack of opportunities in community settings, isolation and disengagement from the community (Das, Kini, Garg, & Parker, 2018). People also possess risk in culture and ethnicity. The early pass out of elders in the community is another drawback as they fail to transmit the full opportunities of the culture. Restriction to go back to the native place also enhance the level of stress in the people. It is seen that people are not even relaxed from the spiritual side. No connection to the spiritual dimensions in life has a direct negative impact on emotional wellbeing.

Generally, it is observed that the mental illness and emotional wellbeing are not related to one another but these can influence one another. People having good social and emotional wellbeing can also get affected by mental illness. These people with support can overcome the mental illness and emotional wellbeing needs while others may not get healed by support. They will require constant care because the unresolved trauma will not only affect their own life but will also hurt the future generation. This will create a feeling of mistrust, isolation, loneliness and depression. A person who may not suffer from historic stress but is experiencing frequent racist experiences, daily stresses will also suffer from traumatic disorders.

Framework and Therapeutic Approaches

A new framework was launched with a motive to shift the way mental illness and emotional wellbeing of the people were treated. Australian government came up with health implementation policies to recover patients from traumatic distress.

Cultural Affordable Care

Cultural healers play an important role in healing and recovering the mental illness and social wellbeing of the people. Government and local authorities must appoint cultural healers in the society who can come and heal people making them realize that they do not have to lose their cultural, language and way of living but at the same time needs to adopt the living style and culture of Australia (Wilson, Reilly & Mackean, 2018). They need to make people understand that it is not a fight against a culture rather it is a fight to survive and create a better living condition for the descendants and other community people.

Person-Centred Care

It is another form of care that needs to be addressed to the people who are traumatic sufferers. It can be done by focusing on the needs of the clients, meeting their social needs and providing them with the best medication (O'Neill, 2019). The authority members must create an effective program based on the individual needs of the Torres Strait Islanders and Aboriginals in the country.

Focus on Children and Younger Ones

It is evident from the researches that an early diagnose and childhood intervention is a best practice to reduce the probability of children and young ones getting affected by the post-traumatic stress and mental disorders found in their parents. Developing resilience in life now will give a long term benefit to the people in terms of life success. It will also help them prevent children from sexual abuse, family violence and protect them from getting indulged into wrong practices which can put their and their family's life in danger. The government and the local authority must ensure that all the children are getting an education so that they can run their livelihood on their own. They must allow asking the parents to become a better counsellor for their children (Somerville, Cullen, McIntyre, Townsend, & Pope, 2017). Good parenting seems critical but is very essential for the moment. Parents need to keep a closure look at the symptoms of the children and must help the government to diagnose the stress symptoms like suicidal attempts, anxiety, depressive disorders, drugs and alcohol consumption. It will help in improving the cognitive development of children and young people.

Trauma-Informed Care

It covers services and interventions required to lessen down the impact of the traumatic condition of individuals. It is important to understand the cause of trauma and impact of it on individuals, families and communities (Menzies, 2019). If required, the authorities must create a pleasing environment for children where they can feel physically and emotionally safe. The service providers must hire culture competent staff and adopt practices acceptable by the patient. The caretakers need to support the victims so that they can come back to their daily life and activity by healing them emotionally and physically. They must also take care of the needs of the children and create culturally integrated medical services for them.

Clinically Appropriate Care

Treatment of mental health issues will be treated at the primary health care. It will include the early diagnose, interventions and medical facilities. Under this framework, the patient is provided with specialist treatment, rehabilitation centres and long term support. National mental health performance underpins some clinical indicators like accessibility, appropriateness, continuity of care, effectiveness, efficiency and capability to follow while treating a patient with traumatic disorders (Dudgeon, Watson, & Holland, 2017). The objective of these indicators is to provide the clinical facility at right place irrespective of the time, culture background, to provide only those interventions that are best suited to the individual needs, to provide best clinical facility based on the skill and knowledge of the doctor and many more.

Recommendations

It is very important to break the cycle of trauma and bring them home. Various kinds of services need to be provided to the sufferers. These include link-up services, family policies, healing and wellbeing policy for these people. Transmission between the parent and child needs to be broken down. These can be achieved by family cohesion, communication, parental warmth and parental environment. The key to prevent the transgenerational trauma is to identify it at the early stage and recognize the cause behind the issue as it will help prevent transmission of trauma from parents to their children. Intergenerational trauma is hard to find but detection of transgenerational trauma makes it easy for the clinicians to grasp the situation and start the treatment of the people instantly. The government of Australia have now come up with national healing strategies to curb the situation and heal the maximum people who are suffering from transgenerational or intergenerational trauma (Atkinson, 2013). It is also seen that a lack of treatment in this direction will affect behaviour, mental health and emotional wellbeing of the people. Here are some strategies that must be applied to improve the condition of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders.

1. To increase the involvement of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in the mental health and social wellbeing program.

2. To improve the framework and therapeutic approached based on the current condition of the people.

3. To complete and implement suicide prevention strategy in the country.

4. To support maximum community and international healing programs.

5. To strengthen cultural competency in both professional and non-professional health and wellbeing matters.

6. To increase employment opportunities for Torres Strait Islanders and Aboriginals.

Conclusion

It can be concluded from the above that transgenerational trauma is affecting the mental and social wellbeing of the Aboriginals and indigenous community members. This gets transmitted to children and other members in the society especially to the descendants. The cause of the traumatic condition can be any. Like historic events, invasion from their native place, family violence or separation of children from their parents. In all these events the level of stress can vary from person to person. It may be severe in some and mild in the others. The response of the person may also vary depending upon the cause of the stress. The impact of stress is found to be worst in children as it affects cognitive ability and mental growth. This is why it can be said that stress among the stolen generation is maximum.

To relieve these generations from stress various strategies, need to be launched in the market like link-up services, family policies, healing and wellbeing services and so on. The government must ensure to make different policies for the people who are directly and indirectly affected by post-traumatic stress. The government must shape the National health plan seriously and also urge people to follow its principals and try to achieve its goals and objectives. The need of the hour is to work in partnership with one another and move ahead in policy mapping and development. The government must, therefore, urge the local community and advisory groups in the country to develop and adopt best practices and improve the life span of the suffers be it stolen generation, children, young people or adults.

References

Atkinson, J. (2013). Closing the gap. Retrieved from: https://earlytraumagrief.anu.edu.au/files/ctg-rs21.pdf

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.

Bakó, T., & Zana, K. (2020). Transgenerational Trauma and Therapy: The Transgenerational Atmosphere. Routledge.

Brown, K. B. (2017). A Phenomenological Study To Explore Transgenerational Trauma: An Australian Aboriginal Perspective (Doctoral dissertation, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology).

Das, M., Kini, R., Garg, G., & Parker, R. (2018). Australian aboriginal and Torres strait islanders' mental health issues: A litany of social causation. Indian Journal of Social Psychiatry, 34(4), 328.

Dudgeon, P., Watson, M., & Holland, C. (2017). Trauma in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Population. Australian Clinical Psychologist, 3(1), 1741.

Grand, S., & Salberg, J. (Eds.). (2016). Trans-generational trauma and the other: Dialogues across history and difference. Taylor & Francis.

Menzies, K. (2019). Understanding the Australian Aboriginal experience of collective, historical and intergenerational trauma. International Social Work, 62(6), 1522-1534.

O'Neill, B. (2019). Decolonising the mind: Working with transgenerational trauma and first nations people. Judicial Officers Bulletin, 31(6), 54.

Somerville, R., Cullen, J., McIntyre, M., Townsend, C., & Pope, S. (2017). Engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the ‘Proper Way’. Newparadigm: the Australian Journal on Psychosocial Rehabilitation, 14, 1-4.

Townsend, C., McIntyre, M., Wright, C. J., Lakhani, A., White, P., & Cullen, J. (2019). Exploring the experiences and needs of homeless aboriginal and torres strait islander peoples with neurocognitive disability. Brain Impairment, 20(2), 180-196.

Wilson, A., Reilly, R., & Mackean, T. (2018). Analysis of factors associated with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide in Australia: A scoping review. Transcultural Psychiatry.

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