In 2004, I put one of Dr. W. Edward Deming’s principles to work. He said: “Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.” While a human is not a company, I consider the development of a human being as taking place in a system.
Development is complex and affected by many inputs. ACE’s is an input that needs to be considered when we are talking about improving lives. As an attorney practicing law, every system I worked in was blaming and shaming. Criminal law, child services, personal injury law, juvenile justice and law enforcement were all blame and shame. In one of my first hearings, I remember my supervising attorney telling me to constantly pound one fact. He viewed as most favorable to our case. I didn’t like the feeling then, and I don’t like it know. I have a real aversion to thinking that one data point should be all consuming. I believe the same is true for people. One data point should not define them, especially in this age of social media and viral communications.
When I write a post, I try to be factual and non-blaming. Because language is important, I don’t always get the message the way I mean it. It helps at that point to have a dialogue with other people who see my point in a different way than I meant it. I don’t need criticism. I need input, data and an explanation of the other point of view. I appreciate communication. There are not many people in my circle who understand the concepts I understand. And I don’t have a collegial body of like-minded scholars that can discuss theory and facts. I need the input. It helps my thoughts and ideas grow.
In addition to writing from a position of not wanting to blame or shame anyone who has been traumatized, as a child or an adult, I also write from a systems perspective. The assessment protocol I have envisioned is intended to inform a traumatized individual what happened to them and how it impacted their life. And I also write with a concept of stratification in mind. We have different levels of trauma and different behavioral issues. I think of stratification as a way of differentiating the level of need. A veteran with combined developmental trauma and severe PTSD has a higher level of need. A person who uses alcohol daily at a predetermined level but functions just fine on a day-to-day basis has a different level of need. And someone with no ACEs or other serious trauma, is without serious negative behaviors and functions extremely well is at a low level of need. I also stratify based on how to access people who are in need.
I wrote my thoughts out for the National Institute of Mental Health when they put out a Request for Information. I am happy to share it with anyone who would like it. I refer to the healing method I envision as a Restoration to Health Strategy (RTHS). RTHS has six levels of addressing trauma: identification, knowledge, nutritional assessment and intervention, somatic experiencing through exercise and trauma release, mindfulness and EFT and a final level of higher level therapy and prescription drugs.
So I encourage comments and thoughts. I have been in this battle since 2008, and the state of Alaska has issued its first ACEs assessment. That’s a long time to wait for what I believe should be guiding state policy to come to the recognition stage. And I am afraid it’s going to take a lot longer to arrive at a stage where we can actually heal trauma.
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