APA Urged to Focus on Exposure to Violence

The APA's willingness to take on the profound issues associated with violence, however, is hopeful, Dr. Harris said. The task force recommended that the APA make a long-term commitment to addressing issues of trauma, establishing a committee with a 5-year mandate to raise consciousness within psychiatry, and to address fiscal issues, training, research, prevention, and public education.

“The only way this is going to happen politically is to form many partnerships, both within the APA and other professional organizations, the police, Head Start, and early childhood care teachers, so they begin to understand more about these kids,” he said. The APA's formation of this committee will be an important first step, he said.

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Cultivating Resiliency

Seven strategies that psychiatrists can employ to encourage wellness and resiliency are:

Reestablishing “the village,” providing a sense of community connection and life.

Providing access to health care.

Improving bonding, attachment, and connectedness dynamics that in turn facilitate “collective efficacy.”

Improving self-esteem.

Increasing the individual's social skills.

Reestablishing the adult protective shield and monitoring problem behaviors.

Minimizing the residual effects of trauma.

Source: Report of the APA Task Force on the Biopsychosocial Consequences of Childhood Violence