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We have witnessed how the devastating after-effects of a school shooting can reverberate long after the immediate trauma. Recently, two survivors of the Parkland massacre of 2018 — a 19-year-old graduate named Sydney Aiello and an unnamed Parkland sophomore — both died in apparent suicides. And on March 25, Jeremy Richman, whose daughter Avielle was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012, was also found dead in an apparent suicide.

This is not the first time we’ve seen the toll that experiencing the trauma of a school shooting can take; after the Columbine massacre of 1999 one student and the mother of a student who was severely wounded took their own lives. And as the Daily Beast reported, six students attempted suicide after a 2012 shooting in Ohio that left three schoolmates dead.

Aiello’s mom has said her daughter struggled with PTSD and suffered from “survivor’s guilt” after living through the deaths of her classmates. While school shootings have become an American epidemic, psychologists and experts in trauma are just beginning to gather data on how these events affect survivors and their communities in the long term. To find out what we do and don’t know about the mental-health effects of surviving a school shooting, we spoke to Amy Nitza, the director of the Institute for Disaster Mental Health at the State University of New York at New Paltz. Nitza’s work focuses on understanding the psychological implications of disasters such as school shootings.

What do you take away from it?
It’s a reminder of the level of devastation these events create and how debilitating the mental-health consequences are on people. At Sandy Hook, it has been six and a half years after the incident and so many mental-health resources that have been poured into that community, and yet there’s this level of suffering. These suicides are likely to have a really strong impact on other survivors. I think we can expect there to be a ripple effect in terms of triggering a resurgence of other people’s pain.

What do we know about the mental-health effects of school shootings?
School shootings have opened up a whole new set of questions. There’s all these sorts of questions around how best to protect kids from exposure to more trauma in the aftermath, because any reexposure to the setting, sights, sounds, or smells of the incident have the potential to become real triggers. For example: what kind of memorials do you do, and how many? Do you keep teddy bears and gifts people have sent on display? And how soon do you reopen the school? What’s the best way to help kids collect their belongings?

One of the parents of one of the women who died said that her daughter had been suffering from “survivor’s guilt,” which is a term that gets used colloquially. What do we know about that phenomenon from a psychological standpoint?
Survivor’s guilt by itself is not a diagnosis. it’s a phenomenon that occurs. Typically it involves the triggering of belief or a question about one’s worth and one’s value, as in why did I survive when other people did not, or why did I deserve to live and others didn’t? It can trigger these sort of deep existential questions that there aren’t really answers to. And wrestling with these questions become a really significant challenge cognitively and emotionally that can build on itself and create cognitive distortions.

Read more on TheCut.com.

The suicide rate among African American children aged 5 to 11 years has increased substantially since 1993 and is persisting, according to Dr. Jeffrey Bridge, a leading researcher at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital. In 1993 suicide ranked as the 14^th leading cause of death among this population. Today it’s the 10^th leading cause of death—with rates nearly twice that of their White counterparts. While it is not intuitive and is difficult to understand, suicide ranks as a leading cause of death among all youth aged 5-11 years. Dr. Bridge and his colleagues are among the first to spearhead suicide research within this young population, and their work has revealed these concerning trends in suicidal behaviors among African American children.

In observance of National Minority Mental Health Awareness month this July, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Office of Behavioral Health Equity is bringing attention to suicide among African American children. A year ago, SAMHSA convened a Virtual Roundtable of leading experts on African American mental health and wellness to identify ethnic-specific risk and protective factors contributing to suicidal behaviors in children. The experts emphasized the need for early identification of mental health problems in children, better outreach and engagement of children and their families, understanding family and community factors that impact children’s mental health, and the urgent need for culturally responsive and effective mental health services geared for young children of color.

The persistent suicide trend should prompt a call to action among practitioners that work in child-serving systems, such as pediatric and family health care, schools, child welfare; mental health providers and researchers. It should also be a call to action for faith-based communities, families and particularly fatherhood initiatives, and community leadership. Collaborating together to prevent child suicide is critical. And reaching out to and saving children who endure such pain as to want to take their own life is of the utmost urgency.

Read more on SAMSHA.gov.

The Native American population living on reservations has the highest overdose death rate among all minorities.

The Washington Post is reporting that among the demographic groups that have endured the most severe impact by the opioid crisis, Native Americans have suffered some of the highest death rates, yet have rarely been included in the national conversation about the epidemic.

A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that while death rates among white Americans in rural areas rose by more than 325% in 2015, the Native American population living on reservations suffered an increase of more than 500% during the same time frame—the highest among all minority groups.

The situation is not a new occurrence; the CDC reported that in 2014, 8.4 per 100,000 Native Americans were dying of opioid overdoses, the highest number of any racial demographic. As CBS News noted, the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that Native American students used heroin and OxyContin two to three times more than the national average between 2009 and 2012. 

Native American leaders have made efforts to take matters directly to the U.S. government—tribal leaders from New Mexico met with representatives from the Department of Justice (DOJ) under President Barack Obama to discuss the state’s skyrocketing drug overdose rate in 2016, and a series of listening sessions between tribal leaders and the DOJ in May and June of 2017 led to the announcement of new strategies to expand assistance to Native American tribes in regard to opioid dependency, among other public health and legal issues.

However, as critics have noted, the Public Health Emergency fund has just $57,000 in available funds—a number that appears too low to provide any significant assistance to any demographic.

Read more at TheFix.com.

The Behavioral Health Barometer, Volume 5, is one of a series of national, regional, and state reports that provide a snapshot of behavioral health in the United States. The reports present a set of substance use and mental health indicators as measured through the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) and the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS), sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

View the recently released Behavioral Health Barometer on NNEDshare.

The thought of going to therapy used to give Jameelah Nasheed  anxiety. While to many people going to therapy may seem like the obvious solution to feelings of overwhelming stress, sadness, and anxiousness, for Nasheed—a Black woman—it hasn’t always felt like a clear and reasonable option. Nasheed had never known another woman who looked like her who had gone to therapy. So she grew up thinking therapy was a “white thing” or a “rich thing” because all the women around her just dealt with their problems—or so it seemed.

According to the Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, African Americans are 20% more likely to experience serious mental health problems than the general population. Despite this being the case, according to the National Alliance of Mental Illness, only about one-quarter of African Americans seek mental health care, compared to 40% of whites. This is due to the negative stigma surrounding mental health, lack of access, and a general distrust of the medical field among Black people (for valid reasons). Thankfully, the increased visibility of Black women seeking treatment and the creation of tools made with Black women in mind (such as the Therapy for Black Girls directory), conversations about mental health care are being had in spaces and by people who didn’t have them in previous years.

Still, there’s room for improvement. Nasheed spoke with mental health professionals—also Black women—about common misconceptions regarding mental health care. From letting go of the Superwoman Schema (yes, that’s a real thing), to finding the right therapist and sticking with it, they told me what they wish they could tell all Black women about mental health.

“What I tell Black women about mental health is that it is okay for you to be honest about your pain and where it comes from. You do not have to explain it away, and it is possible to have both inner strength AND vulnerability at the same time. Learning how to connect with yourself, what you truly feel AND need is the best path to healing, because then not only can you ask for help, but also know how to truly take care of you.” — Shena Tubbs, founder of Black Girls Heal.

“I often tell black women that mental health is an investment you’re making for your soul. Remember: mental health does not mean mental illness, and seeing a therapist can help to minimize stressors in your life. As Black women, we have to recognize that we can take off the superwoman cape and be vulnerable, ask for help, and express our stressors to others. Taking care of your mental health is just as important as taking care of your physical health.” — Marline Francois, owner of Hearts Empowerment Counseling Center.

Read more on HelloGiggles.com.

Trauma, trauma-informed care and the connection between traumatic exposure and mental health are hot topics. The growing discussions across the spectrum of research, clinical practice, community  and service systems – mental health, education, criminal justice, child welfare, etc.—and increased awareness of the role trauma in peoples’ lives is creating a paradigm shift. Approaches for creating optimal conditions for mental health and well-being are emerging trends within communities.

As the promotion of trauma-informed programs and interventions expands, it is critical to learn how communities—often those experiencing higher rates of violence and associated trauma—understand the impact of trauma, the roles of resilience and community assets, and the development of community-driven and community-embraced programs and interventions.

This NNED virtual roundtable highlighted perspectives from diverse racial and ethnic community leaders to illustrate how trauma shows up in their communities and how culturally responsive, trauma-informed, holistic services and supports provide appropriate opportunities for healing and resilience. This NNED virtual roundtable was held on July 25, 2019, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm EDT.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe how the intersection of culture, trauma, and behavioral health can present in different communities and systems.
• Share culturally responsive, trauma-informed strategies and policies for community-based organizations that support systems-level change efforts to reduce health care disparities.
• Identify ways that community-based organizations can advocate for or implement culturally responsive, trauma-informed strategies or policies in their own communities.

Join the NNED virtual roundtable discussion on Twitter! Between 2:00 – 3:30 pm EDT on July 25th (and for the rest of the month), tweet @nned_net and use #MinorityMentalHealth to share your thoughts and get your questions answered!

To join or observe the Twitter chat:

• Log into your Twitter account during virtual roundtable and for the month of July
• Access http://www.tchat.io/rooms/minoritymentalhealth in your browser
• You’ll be asked to log in and authorize the app with your Twitter account
• Remember your tweets have to be under 118 characters including spaces (the other 22 spaces are reserved for #MinorityMentalHealth which will be added automatically for you)
• Follow @nned_net

Panelists:

Beverly Watts Davis

Chief Officer, Program Support and Resource Development | WestCare Foundation

Bruce Purnell , Ph.D.

Founder and Executive Director | The Love More Movement

Daryl Blacher

Program Manager, ReCAST Baton Rouge | Office of the Mayor-President

Joyce Plummer, J.D.

Project Director, ReCAST Baton Rouge | Office of the Mayor-President

Melanie Plucinski

Program Manager, Division of Race and Equity | City of Minneapolis

Xiomara Owens, Ph.D.

Director, Behavioral Health Aide Training | Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium