Trauma is a public health issue

Abstract

Exposure to trauma is pervasive in societies worldwide and is associated with substantial costs to the individual and society, making it a significant global public health concern. We present evidence for trauma as a public health issue by highlighting the role of characteristics operating at multiple levels of influence – individual, relationship, community, and society – as explanatory factors in both the occurrence of trauma and its sequelae. Within the context of this multi-level framework, we highlight targets for prevention of trauma and its downstream consequences and provide examples of where public health approaches to prevention have met with success. Finally, we describe the essential role of public health policies in addressing trauma as a global public health issue, including key challenges for global mental health and next steps for developing and implementing a trauma-informed public health policy agenda. A public health framework is critical for understanding risk and protective factors for trauma and its aftermath operating at multiple levels of influence and generating opportunities for prevention.

Child maltreatment across the lifespan

“…As Schnyder et al (2017) note, the collaboration can be seen as encouraging steps towards a more global structure in the field of traumatic stress. As trauma is a global issue (Hall & Olff, 2016; Kessler et al, 2017; Magruder, McLaughlin, & Borbon, 2017), global collaboration on important topics seems an efficient way to move the field forward.…”

Psychotraumatology on the move

“…Magruder, McLaughlin, & Elmore Borbon, 2017) with an associated increase in the number of papers published on psychotrauma (Figure 1). There is also an increasing number of journals that now focus on psychotrauma; of those, only one is fully Open Access (Gold), and that is European Journal of Psychotraumatology (EJPT), owned by the European Society of Traumatic Stress Studies (ESTSS).…”

“…McNally, Heeren, and Robinaugh (2017)’s paper on Bayesian statistics, and public health (e.g. Magruder et al, 2017). Although still often rejected, it is important also to publish research with negative findings, especially when it involves a replication study such as ‘Modification of episodic memories by novel learning: a failed replication study’ by van K. Van Schie et al (2017).…”

Exploring Contextual Trauma in Cambodia: A Sociointerpersonal Perspective on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

“…Researchers have addressed trauma by examining development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among individuals following trauma (Cloitre et al., ; Galea et al., ; Mullett‐Hume, Anshel, Guevara, & Cloitre, ) and the ways in which experiences of mass trauma are transmitted across generations (Field, Muong, & Sochanvimean, ; Kellerman, ; Scharf, ; Song, Tol, & DeJong, ; Zerach, Kanat‐Maymon, Aloni, & Solomon, ). There has been less exploration conceptualizing how individuals nested within families and communities are impacted by experiences of mass trauma at the community level; however, scholars have advocated for such multilevel approaches methodologically (Kawachi & Subramanian, ) and from a public health prevention lens (Magruder, McLaughlin, & Borbon, ). In this paper, we elucidate effects of contextual trauma (e.g., at individual, relational, and community levels) using a sociointerpersonal perspective of PTSD (Maercker & Horn, ) in a nationally representative sample of Cambodian adults.…”