Racist Incident-Based Trauma Case Study

Racism imposes additional health issues on people of color because it is an unnecessary stressor in their every day lives. “African Americans die earlier and have higher rates than whites of many chronic diseases across the social gradient” (Unnatural Causes, 2008). Increased cortisol levels, which are caused by stress have been linked to high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, and other health problems.

Our book defines several strategies that will be very useful if properly implemented. For example, Assessing the client’s racial identity, this would allow the counselor to identify the client’s racial identity and allow the counselor to learn and discuss how the individuals feels about racism and white privilege. Exploring client’s problems for race-related stress. During each session the client discusses their fears and concerns. Having this information beforehand will allow the counselor to further investigate based on the individual’s racial makeup and other racist attitudes they may display. Having the upper hand and understanding of the clients racial identity status will help the counselor provide a more

A significant investigation into the field of trauma is whether those affected experience and responds to trauma in ways as other diverse groups of individuals. Biological, psychological or sociocultural factors are causes in the differences in the response to trauma, and are additional shields against the development of PTSD (Ruglass, & Tackett, 2016). It has often been realized that there are limitations when grouping individuals according to race, ethnicity or culture. When referring to race, biological or physical characteristics are used to classify groups of people based on (e.g. Caucasian or African American, etc.). Identifying one with a particular group based on culture and heritage corresponds to their ethnicity. Racial or ethnicity minority group members typically experience a significant amount of racism, prejudice and discrimination, due to their minority status. Although racial and ethnic minority groups comprise about thirty seven percent of the United States citizens, Ruglass & Tackett (2016) assert that there is little research in trauma on these

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a well known disorder that takes over the life of it’s victim. We know that anyone has the chance of facing this challenging disorder but does race/ culture have anything to do with it? Throughout this paper we will be trying to answer this question and many more. This paper’s main focus is on what post-traumatic stress disorder is, what evidence provided by researchers leads us to believe that race and ethnicity has something to do with PTSD rates and last but not least the few ways on how to treat PTSD patients properly.

To effectively lessen the effects of lifelong racism and discrimination, Hays & Erford (2014) recommends a strength-based approach, with the counselor focusing on the individual and family capacities. Focusing on the client’s positive attributes and favorable cultural norms can encourage one to become more resilient (Vaterlaus, Skogrand, & Chaney, 2015). Furthermore, applying counseling skills such as unconditional positive regard, empathy, consistency, focusing on the client, and providing a supportive environment can all help the therapeutic relationship (Hays & Erford, 2014). Additionally, making the counselor/client relationship equal will also allow the client to feel more comfortable, may dispel the mistrust of counseling prominent in African American culture (Hays & Erford, 2014). Finally, acknowledging the racial differences with the client could encourage them to discuss the racism and discrimination they may have experienced (Hays & Erford, 2014).

People of different ethnic backgrounds are treated differently due to many kinds of social and multicultural differences people and society. African-Americans within society are treated with prejudice and are stereotyped into negative connotations that can increase distress and impairments such as depression. Behavioral disorders as well as mental illnesses that African-Americans develop throughout their lifespan can show implications on how racism can be a cause of depression when African-Americans are faced with situations that can involve racist views or altercations. This article will provide an overview of how racism towards African-Americans can contribute towards mental health issues within African-American community as

In the interviews African Americans shared how on a daily basis they found themselves dealing with anxiety, fear, humiliation, shame, and stress.”(Thompson-Miller 3). Everyday with feeling all of these emotions is in no way how a life should be lived. “The ‘stress hormone’ cortisol is believed to create a domino effect that hard-wires pathways between the hippocampus and amygdala in a way that might create a vicious cycle by creating a brain that becomes predisposed to be in a constant state of fight-or-flight”.(Christopher Bergland 1). All of the other emotions combined also triggered a PTSD like syndrome called “segregation stress syndrome” .“segregation stress syndrome are similar to PTSD symptoms documented in psychiatric literature. However, “segregation stress syndrome” differs from PTSD because the traumatic experience was not a one-time occurrence; it was sustained, over time, in African American communities. In addition, the racial violence that occurred was a form of systematic chronic stress, the type that has been shown to have a detrimental impact on a person’s psychological well-being”. (Thompson-Miller

David R. Williams and Ruth Williams Morris write in “Racism and Mental Health: The African American Experience” that negative attitudes of white Americans resulting in the formation of racist policies contribute to mental health problems for African Americans, as they attempt to cope. Mental health issues, Williams and William Morris continues, can be a consequence of living within a lower income bracket with decreasing prospects for future improvement, an inability to attain needed “resources” e.g. the choice between prescription medications and food, or finally, internalizing the damaging opinions.

Research on structural racism should not only focus on independent effects but also should address interactions among multiple forms of racism. Further, it is likely that forms of racism may reinforce one another, and efforts to dismantle one system may yield little effect without simultaneous efforts on another system. The study of single forms of racism would lead to an incomplete understanding and, potentially worse, biased estimates (Sacerdote, 2005). For instance, assume that five forms of racism fully account for health disparities, but an intervention only targets one form. That intervention may show no effect simply because it is incomplete and potentially lead to the erroneous conclusion that anti-racism efforts fail. Hence, it is absolutely critical to consider the multiple forms of racism (Sacerdote, 2005).

African Americans experience specific events of danger related to race that overwhelm the nervous system and require us to recover. These dangers may be real or perceived discrimination, threats of harm and injury, police incidents, and humiliating and shaming events. The aggressors may be black or white. These events stand out in our memory and have long-term impact on our perception of ourselves and our social environments. As mentioned in the previous discussion, some African Americans are stronger after recovering from these events, and others have long-term declines in their ability to cope with future stresses and threats.

In order to develop a scale that examined not only the cognitive dimension, but also looked at the behavioral and affective dimension, she and her colleagues (Poteat & Spanierman, 2009) developed the White Privilege Attitude Scale. They felt that this type of research tool could contribute to the study and promotion of effective antiracist

There has been a plethora of research done on the perception of societal and interpersonal racism and how it effects psychosis in ethnic groups. These studies have all fueled the argument that suggests the high prevalence of institutional racism. However, with these finidings there has still been little research done on the relationship between rasicm and psychosis as well as, longitudinal evidence to support the study. Therefore, the aim of this researchis to discover whether there is a “ prospective link between percieved racism and poorer medication complaince in UK Caribbeans with psychosis, and to discover any link between percived racism and poorer service-related out-come is mediated by medication adhrence” (p.916).

They recognized that racism was having a negative effect on their lives, and was creating an environment where they did not feel welcome. In fact, one of the observations made by the researcher was that the interviewees generally became quiet and withdrawn when describing their experiences. The research demonstrates that racism has had an immediate, and in some cases, long-term effect. While many were expecting that racism existed in the city, it was sad to see the effect it had on the youth who agreed to be apart of this study. Most of them didn't even know what racism was until they experienced it first hand in a predominantly white school. This study was a great way to examine how racism can have an immediate/ long term mental and social

Death, hate, violence, abuse, and discrimination are all by products of racism. Not only does it leave a path of destruction it is also uncomfortably common. Racism is defined by prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior. Such beliefs are inevitable due to human nature, the issue is the sheer magnitude of racism. Such beliefs are held across the world and it leads to civil unrest and even interpersonal conflicts. The primary effect racism has on individuals is the ability to manipulate them on a psychological level and even physiological level in extreme cases. The psychological effects of racism are often overlooked, which is unsettling because of the amount chaos it causes on the psychological level. Such chaos must be examined and studied in order to find the impact racism leaves on an individual. Impacts are often depression, anxiety, stress, neural processes, neurochemical changes, cognitive structures, and substance abuse. The list may not seem long but keep in mind that each subject listed yields it's own issues. The psychological effects of racism are vast and dismal, yet no one seems to really be informed. It’s rather ironic how vast the consequences are but no one really likes to discuss them. Regretfully topics such as mental health or psychological effects of certain events are swept under the rug. Regardless of the amount of attention it receives racism does have a

There are significant differences in health outcomes among Americans of different racial and ethnic groups. Differences in socioeconomic status play a significant role in determining the health outcomes of certain minority groups, however it doesn’t account for all differences, especially identifiable health disparities among groups of the same socioeconomic status. Racism, whether at the institutional, interpersonal or intrapersonal level, affects various aspects of an individual’s life that can have permanent health implications even before birth in the form of chronic stress.