Atkinson, J., Nelson, J., & Atkinson, C. (2010). Trauma, Transgenerational Transfer and Effects on Community Wellbeing. Working Together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Wellbeing Principles and Practice, 135-144.

Summary

This chapter focuses on how the effects of experiencing trauma are transmitted within and across generations, and how whole communities can be affected by a single experience of trauma by a single member of a community. The chapter introduces the reader to a selection of views and conceptions of trauma, theories of its transgenerational transfer, an explanation of the impact of lived or transferred trauma in the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities, and an overview of dysfunctional community syndrome. It also explores the links between unresolved childhood trauma and participation in violence, sexually inappropriate behaviour, and incarceration as adolescents and adults. The second part of the chapter discusses the challenges associated with working in Indigenous communities; it provides an example of a program that is achieving positive results through education and community empowerment, and an appreciation of the need to embed trauma-recovery in all facets of service provision.