TITLE:
Exposures to violence and trauma among children and adolescents
AUTHORS:
Clarissa Agee Shavers
KEYWORDS:
Violence; Trauma; Children; Adolescents; Prevention
JOURNAL NAME:
Health,
Vol.5 No.2,
February
28,
2013
ABSTRACT:
Children and adolescents (youth) may be exposed to
various forms of violence and trauma in a number of ways. Research and clinical
studies have revealed that youth may be significantly impacted by isolated,
single or repetitive exposures to violence
and trauma. Further, these exposures may ultimately impact the overall
psycho-social-emotional, and mental health, as well as, the mental health care
of this population of youth who self-report, who are at-risk and who may or may
not be at risk for exposure to violence and trauma in their lives. Thus, consequently,
health care providers (HCP’s) who do not view or understand that exposures to
violence and trauma among youth, as well as, exposures to adverse
environments or situations may pose as a serious or potential psychosocial-emotional and mental health care con- sequence
for this population of youth may in- advertently impede or delay timely access
to appropriate health care for this population. Hence, as a consequence of this
delay in timely access to appropriate psycho-social-emotional and mental health
care services for this population of youth, may significantly compromise their
overall psycho-social-emotional and mental health care status. This article
reviews the impact of exposures to violence and trauma among youth, with a
focus on current empirical findings noted in the literature regarding victimized
and traumatized children and adolescents, and the implications of these
findings in promoting the healing and restoration for this population of youth
for HCP’s. In addition, a brief discussion of an empirical evidence-based
psycho-social-emotional intervention/project referred to as The Safer
Tomorrows: Injury Prevention and Violence Reduction Project? which
has been designed for children and adolescents who may or may not be at-risk
for exposures to violence and trauma is presented. The importance of early
identification, screening, assessment and treatment among victimized and traumatized children and adolescents are also addressed.