It’s been more than three months since Charlottesville suffered a violent attack by white supremacists, but some people are still feeling traumatized. Next week, two mental health professionals will host a free 90-minute session on trauma, and Sandy Hausman reports over 600 people have already signed up.
The program runs from 9-10:30 on November 28th, admission is free, and you can register via this link:
http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07eer4qwwv2d46b69f&llr=e8v9audab
When it comes to recovering from trauma, one clinical social worker says Charlottesville could learn from Blacksburg which suffered its own violent attack in April of 2007. After what was then the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, Dr. Allisson Sampson-Jackson recalls many people performing random acts of kindness.
“People were really sensitive to each other and wanted to have a conversation about how we failed to notice, to reach out, and after a while those random acts of kindness and wanting to have that conversation kind of blows over and things go back to normal.”
To prevent that from happening, Blacksburg organized the Act of Caring campaign. Jackson says Charlottesville should do the same. She and her presentation partner Theresa Caldwell will speak at the Paramount Theater Tuesday, November 28, about what some consider a public health epidemic.
“Seventy percent of the general population has experienced a trauma in their lifetime," Jackson explains. "That's 223 million people, and we expect about 46 million out of 76 million kids this year will witness violence, so this is an epidemic that’s recognized by the CDC and yet unlike campaigns on texting while driving or smoking cigarettes when you’re young, people aren’t talking about it.”
For kids, she says, symptoms of trauma may be triggered by physical or emotional abuse, neglect, separation, divorce or death of a parent, someone in the home that has mental illness, a drug problem or has gone to jail.