Community voice
by Ray Lewis
This APHA-CHPPD Day of Action was a Community Summit on one of the most important health, justice and human rights issues of our day. Given my previous work in criminal justice systems research, evaluation, policy and advocacy, this was my first choice for addressing one of the USA’s biggest health and social issues with a public health lens. Gary Slutkin, the Cure Violence founder, describes a stuck system when the way we think about something prevents a solution. The cutting edge of public health deals with wicked problems that deal with complex issues cutting across multiple sectors. At one point in human evolution we were certain that everything revolved around the earth and diseases were caused by humors, but a scientific method changed our beliefs and how we frame our shared world. Through a science lens, violence is best viewed in a contagious disease model, and early exposure to violence is compounded by other adverse childhood experiences. The cumulative generational experience needs better approaches to healing than the current medical behavioral status can deliver. However, many people that make and/or support existing public policies are stuck in an outdated narrative based in the assumptions that “bad people” are the problem, a police state is required to maintain order, punitive sentences will deter others, if a story bleeds it leads in the mainstream media, elections can be won with a get tough on crime approach, for-profit prisons are an acceptable part of capitalism, and that if the present mix of public responses doesn't work then we just need to do more of it. As a society, we don't want to accept that the racialized face of violence, for both victims and perpetrators, is used to prove a point that avoids the root causes. The good news is that violence is preventable. Research on trauma informed care shows that risk factors are not completely predictive because protective factors can be built into the environment. Members from the community are needed in the roles of violence interrupters and in outreach, education and prevention roles. These are the jobs for a public health approach, but the role of community or public health workers may need to get flipped to substitute lived experience and interpersonal skills for educational credentials. It's taken about a decade for ACES theory to gain traction after seven years of research to develop and document the theory. If we lack the political will to change, perhaps we need to look further behind the current narrative of crime and justice at the role of racism that is creating the power structure of decision making. The key questions from my community perspective are: 1. Who benefits? 2. Who has the power to decide priorities and allocate budgets? 3. And what can we do in the meantime? The restorative justice hubs described in Chicago give me hope that this approach can grow. The root cause of root causes may be more related to historical trauma passed through generations, compounded by institutional and structural racism that can't be acknowledged without unresolved guilt and blame. But for now, in Chicago, there is hope. And evidence that things can change. When will the public health system respond like the last sentence of the Pledge of Allegiance were more than just hollow words mouthed before official meetings? Original draft posted on November 1, 2015. https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3830138980179954115&postID=1427936828331197288&bpli=1 |
Who Can Contribute?Community Voice authorship is shared by diverse members of the Public Health and Philadelphia communities. Archives
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