No Images? Click here Welcome to the inaugural edition of Blue Knot Review – an electronic journal chronicling recent developments and new perspectives around childhood trauma and trauma-informed practice. It is designed for health and legal professionals and interested others. CHILDHOOD TRAUMA: Then & NowIn the lead article we chart the growing interest in the treatment of the long-term impacts of childhood trauma in adults. Judith Herman’s pioneering text, 'Trauma and Recovery’ was published in 1992. Since then the clinical and research landscape, around the multiple adverse effects of childhood trauma, has changed dramatically, in a number of ways. Neuroscientific findings, coupled with the explosion of research, around attachment dynamics, herald exciting possibilities for more effective and nuanced treatments. This even includes the treatment of severe longstanding early life trauma. Current research findings support optimism for recovery and such optimism is no longer regarded as `wishful thinking’. However, there remains a vast gap between what we know (i.e. what the evidence shows) and what actually happens on the ground. Failure to allocate adequate funds for workforce development and service provision means that vast numbers of people still cannot access appropriate professional support. Applying Trauma-Informed Practice to Legal and Judicial ContextsAcknowledgement of trauma within legal systems is long overdue. This paradox is in urgent need of redress. “Trauma-Informed Practice” is applicable not only to mental health, but to all forms of human service delivery and interaction. Necessarily, this includes the domain of law - legal practitioners are regularly dealing with people either as victim or offenders whose lives have been impacted by trauma. Sex worker or solider? Who is more likely to have PTSD?When we think about post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), we most often think of soldiers traumatised by their war experiences. But the statistics tell another story. About 5-12% of Australian military personnel who have experienced active service have PTSD at any one time, this is about the same as rates for police, ambulance personnel, firefighters and other rescue workers. While these rates are significant, they are not vastly different to rates in the general Australian population (8% of women and 5% of men). Sex workers however... Read more here. Podcast – Dissociation and coping with traumaDissociative Identity Disorder is a condition that can develop as a protective mechanism against trauma. We hear the compelling story of a woman who, after a childhood of family abuse, lived with identities too numerous to count – and how she eventually recovered. Guest speakers include Dr Cathy Kezelman AM and Professor Warwick Middleton. Changing the conversations about traumaChildhood trauma is all around us. It is the theme of this year’s Oscar-winning movie Moonlight, about a young boy abused by his mother and gangs at school. Despite its visibility, there is a stigma about talking publicly and privately about childhood traumas. Certainly trauma is a society-wide public health challenge and its financial, personal and societal costs are enormous.
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