This past week has been filled with violence.
The media is awash in the bombings at the Boston Marathon, poisoned letters
sent to the President and a US Senator and the shooting and chase of the
bombing suspects. As if that weren’t enough, incredible anger was voiced about
the Senate not voting for stronger gun control measures.
While the media is having a field day over
all the various choices for meaty stories, and Facebookers are posting over
time their pro or con views on gun control, I find myself once again wondering
why we’re not addressing the root issue of violence and what motivates people
to use a weapon, be it a penis, knife, poison, black powder, car or gun.
Working with chronic conditions, as well as
having spent years working in AIDS, the link between violence and chronic
illness has been evident to me for a very long time. Many of the HIV+ women I
worked with had incredible violence in their backgrounds, often at very young
ages. It wasn’t uncommon to be holding a safer sex workshop and every
participant had experienced rape, including some that were left for dead.
Domestic violence was so much a part of some women’s lives, that it was
standard to hear things like, “Well he wasn’t that bad. He only hit me with an
open hand.”
The research now supports what I’ve known for some time, A
growing body of science is consistently linking violence (the experience with
and/or fear of) with risk for and incidence of a range of serious physical
health problems. The effects of violence on health are a consequence of the
physical, biological, environmental, social, behavioral, and emotional changes
that violence imposes on all of us. While it has been long understood that
violence has implications for emotional and physical injury, it is only
relatively recently that we are beginning to recognize the longer-term effects
that reap an extensive toll
on the broader health status of individuals, families and communities. These
health
consequences include asthma, significant
alteration of healthy eating and activity, heart disease and hypertension,
ulcers and gastrointestinal disorders, diabetes, neurological and
musculoskeletal diseases, and lung disease. … Adults
reporting exposure to violence as children had increased likelihood of a number
of chronic health conditions compared those without such exposures, especially
if their experience involved multiple forms of violence exposures (ischemic
heart disease 2.2x, cancer 1.9x, stroke 2.4x, chronic obstructive lung disease
3.9x, diabetes 1.6x, hepatitis
2.4x) http://www.wvdhhr.org/bcf/children_adult/cabuseprev/documents/violenceandchronicillnessfactsheet.pdf
The two questions we need to be addressing, if we truly want
to reduce violence (in all forms) and its consequences, are:
-
How do we create an environment and community
where people are able to live a life of well-being, contentment and purpose?
-
How do we create a mental health system that
helps to identify and effectively treat those in need?
It is important to note that in spite of all we do, there
will still be incidences of violence, but significantly less, and because we
are mortal, illness and accidents will still be part of our lives.
Tackling this problem is not easy. There is no pill,
legislation or “one size fits all” quick fix approach. It is going to require
work, cooperation and a belief that change is possible. It will need to come
from the grass roots level and include as many different groups as possible, since
we are a very diverse country. It needs to come the bottom up, which is the way most effective and
sustained change occurs. It also means that we each must become “the change we
want to see.” It’s not okay to think
you’ve done your part by sending e-mails to your congressman and reposting
comments on Facebook. It means being an active, engaged and fully present part
of your family and community.
With that in mind, consider the following:
• The Blue zones project, which I’ve written about
before in this blog, has studied five communities around the world where
longevity is common among the majority of the population. They identified nine
common denominators. When one looks at these Power Nine it is easy to see why these communities promote a sense of well-being and have
less violence and chronic disease than their American counterparts. The Power
Nine include:
- Move Naturally
- Know your sense of purpose
- De stress daily
- Eat a plant slant diet
- Don’t over eat
- Drink alcohol moderately
- Belong to a faith based or community group
- Put family (how you choose to define it) first
-
Associate with people who support healthy
behaviors
So if you are thinking, “that’s fine if you live on an
island, but it wouldn’t work in a city or my community,” think again. There is now a Blue Zones Project initiative
to help cities and towns become Blue
Zones Communities. It provides an opportunity for citizens, schools, employers, restaurants, grocery stores and community
leaders to work together on policies and programs that will make the most
impact and move the community towards optimal health and well-being. Check
out the following sites to see the impact it’s had on three communities:
• Prevention Institute
has developed a series of tools communities, advocates, policymakers etc can
use to reduce violence.
• While improving
communities will help to reduce some aspects of mental illness, there will
still be a need for effective treatments.
While funding is key-a number of states have cut mental health funding,
attitudes are a major barrier to people seeking care. NAMI (National Alliance
on Mental Illness) is launching a new campaign to help shed light on mental
illness and encourage understanding and conversation. Partnering with Lifetime,
the film “Call Me Crazy: A Five Film” airs tonight, April 20 at 8 pm EST.
Featured stars include: Jennifer Hudson, Melissa Leo, Octavia Spencer, Sarah
Hyland, Sofia Vassilieva, Brittany Snow, Ernie Hudson, Jason Ritter, Jean
Smart, Lea Thompson, Melanie Griffith, Chelsea Handler. To learn more about
this film and watch the trailer, go to the NAMI website.
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