Author: Derek Beres / Source: Big Think
- Chicago’s South Side didn’t have a trauma care unit until last year; the last closed in 1991.
- Since the Level 1 Trauma Center opened, African Americans have experienced a seven-fold decrease in access in trauma care.
- Whether immediate trauma care or long-term mental health care, access to facilities is limited in minority neighborhoods.
Imagination is one of our most fertile sources of creativity and positive emotional health. The ability to imagine many possibilities during a Rorschach test is indicative of a functional mind open to the possibilities. Unfortunately, trauma stamps out those possibilities. Some veterans, due to traumatic physical or emotional experiences, are unable to portend future scenarios; instead, they replay their personal reel of history over and over.
This phenomenon is not exclusive to war. As a massage therapist friend used to say, “your issues are in your tissues.” Again, this covers the gamut of physical and emotional malaise. Access to health care—immediate in the case of emergency trauma; long-term for chronic mental health conditions—should be universally provided in wealthy nations such as America. But it is not.
We live out trauma in crippling ways. Victims of sexual and physical abuse often find it difficult to imagine a future brighter than their past. Everyone carries the sordid influence of history; if our background involves traumatic incidents, the likelihood we’ll become “stuck” greatly increases the possibility that we’ll never overcome those instances. They become defining moments in our psychological outlook.
Long-term trauma can result from accidents or intentional attacks: gunshot wounds, heart attacks, muggings, spousal abuse, child abuse. You need not be the victim for repeated incidents to affect your mindset. Living in an environment where repeated instances create chronic trauma affects how your view your future, which is why trauma can be geographical as well.
Last week, I wrote about food deserts, neighborhoods at least one mile from retail grocery stores that offer fresh fruits and vegetables in cities and ten miles away in rural areas. Limited access to healthy food feeds into obesity rates (among other health problems); it also inspires psychological malaise, as nutrition is influential in outlook.
The Fight For Trauma Care on Chicago’s South Side
Food deserts predominantly affect minority populations. Correlation seems implausible. In a media age where “reverse racism” is treated by some outlets as a serious cause of concern, data…
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