On October 20, 2015, Dr. Vincent Felitti spoke to delegates attending the Annual Convention of the National Congress of American Indians in San Diego, CA. His address was the culmination of four years of effort to secure this opportunity, and I couldn't be more excited about the prospect that trauma will enter the discussions among AI/AN peoples.
During his talk, my interpretation of the audience response was favorable. While the topics he discussed can be difficult to hear, the attention level was at a very high level, with very little going on in the way of background conversations. One prominent Native leader said, in response to Dr. Felitti's reference to his time running out, said not to worry, he had more time, and said "You rock." Very high praise indeed.
Dr. Felitti generally speaks from a PowerPoint that was unavailable because of the death of his computer. But I thought that his presentation had huge impact from focusing just on his words. I learned, for example, that 1% of the studied ACE's population at Kaiser Permanente (KP) was American Indian.
It's now important for us to bring this message to our policymakers, and to recommend ways to address the trauma in Indian Country. I believe we need to have a study that exposes the depth of trauma among us. I believe it is higher than the KP population. We need to start addressing some of the treatment options. Dr. Felitti specifically mentioned EMDR and Ericksonian hypnotherapy, which he mentioned in a post here on AcesConnetion earlier this year.
We have work to do, and I am so happy to have those who actively participate in AcesConnection as colleagues working towards creating a positive future for all our children. And I am especially indebted to Dr. Felitti for his willingness to bring his message to the AI/AN community.
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