A major social issue dealing with
women is how experiencing violence and trauma in their lives can lead to
chronic and re-occurring mental illnesses. The type of abuse that mainly triggers
mental health problems includes mostly intimate violence like physical, sexual,
verbal and emotional abuse that was inflicted on women either during their
childhood or adult life. Awareness for violence inflicted mental illnesses has
increased in Canada with statistics stating that 29% of the general population
of women who have ever married have been sexually or physically assaulted by
their partner and in British Colombia this percentage is even higher at 36%.
Also there have been many studies that have provided results saying that there
is a high rate of child sexual abuse in female adult psychiatric inpatients in
Canada.
Experiencing these traumatic events
can trigger many different types of mental illnesses in women. Studies have
related early childhood trauma to several mental illnesses like depression,
borderline and multiple personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder
and substance abuse. There is wide
debate in the Canadian health system about how to properly treat women who have
mental illnesses as a result of previous violence and abuse. Many people feel
that the bio-medical and social justice institutions have failed in taking
proper measures to treat women with mental health issues because these systems
do not consider the social factors that cause mental health in women. There is
also a great need for specialized programs for women with borderline
personality disorder, co-existing substance abuse, women in prison, women with
developmental disabilities, Anishnaabe, refugee and immigrant populations.
Since modern bio-medical practices
seem to be failing in addressing these mental health issues in women it would
be interesting to see how traditional Anishnaabe practices would address these
issues in our modern society. Traditional Anishnaabe teachings focus on a
holistic approach to medicine; taking care of the spiritual, physical, mental
and emotional aspects of a human being leaves the opportunity for a damaged
soul to heal, recover and eventually over-come their hard-ships. This way of
healing may assist abused women who need to recover from their trauma and help
keep their lives in balance, therefore preventing mental illnesses that may
result from a previous traumatic experience they encountered. Also in
traditional Anishnaabe teachings all human beings are equal and there is a
personal responsibility of every human being to help someone else when they are
in need. If this idea was put into practice there would be more help and
support for women who are victims of abuse, not just physically like being
given a drug-prescription by a doctor, but emotional support as well from their
community.
In my opinion, applying Traditional
Anishnaabe medicine and teachings would help aid in preventative measures for
abused women because it takes a more holistic, roots based approach to healing
wounded souls. It would help women deal with their issues starting inwards from
spiritual and emotional healing rather than just observing and diagnosing like
modern-day western medicine does. Incorporating this with the strong
community-driven ideals Anishnaabe ways teach there would be more of a
supportive community provided for these women to help them deal with their
issues before they develop into serious mental illnesses.
-Maggie Turpin
Resources:
-Marrow, Marina. "Violence and Trauma in the LIves of
Women with Serious Mental Illness." Www.cewh-cesf.ca. British
Columbia Centre of Excellence for Womens Health, 2002. Web.
<http://www.cewh-cesf.ca/PDF/bccewh/violence-trauma.pdf>.
-Malloch, Lesley. Indian Medicine, Indian Health-Study
Between Red and White Medicine. Rep. Canadian Women Studies, n.d. Web.
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ReplyDeleteThat is so true bio-medical and social justice institutions don't take social factors into a count to treat women who have mental illnesses, I agree Maggie there is a huge need for a program that specialized for women.
ReplyDeleteJen.M
I agree with your standpoint on this issue. There are so many women who survive different types of abuse and they are left to try and heal themselves. I really like that you mentioned that prescriptions don't fix everything, this is so true. Pills don't take away the pain that was caused and they certainly don't help women deal with the memories they have of these events. Pills simply pacify women and don't give them a chance to talk about their problems or deal with them in any helpful way. I think the Anishinabek way of healing a woman's soul is the best way to approach women's mental health because it takes into account how trauma affects her overall health as well as her life and her relationships with other people. What is so important about that approach is that it leaves no aspect of a person out, everything is accounted for, which is so important when dealing with mental health issues such as trauma. Thanks for writing on this Maggie!
ReplyDelete-Morgan (Disabilities)
I agree that there is very little in terms of dealing with mental illness and probably even fewer resources are dedicated to mental health issues in Aboriginal Women. Creating awareness of this issue, as you have, definitely needs to be done. Traditionally, the women in Aboriginal communities provided the bulk of the support for mental and emotional issues and were depended on by the community. We have come so far from those traditional values that were once so prevalent.
ReplyDeleteLisa