The National Conference of Viet Nam Veteran Ministers, an organization
composed of clergy who served in Viet Nam, by electronic meeting on June
7th,
2000, issued the following statement concerning
the issue of trauma and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among young
adolescent Americans:
As veterans of military service in Viet Nam, we know personally the effects
of traumatic stress--the way in which it affects us immediately and the way
it affects us for many years thereafter; the disruptions it makes to our
families, our marriages, our jobs, our ability to contribute to society. As
professionals, we know how traumatic stress affects so many others besides
veterans: survivors of child abuse, victims of rape and domestic violence,
survivors of holocausts and terrorism. To this list it is increasingly
apparent that we must add an estimated 3-7% of middle and high school
children who have experienced being closely exposed to extreme urban
violence as witnesses and victims.
Untreated traumatic stress robs children of their ability to learn and robs
society of the benefit of their talents and their energy. The Pasadena
Project, jointly sponsored by Trauma Psychiatry at the University of
California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and by the California Office of Criminal
Justice Planning (OCJF), demonstrates that successful treatment can be
achieved and illustrates the destruction to children's lives which might
otherwise take place. Looking at a sample of adolescent trauma survivors in
this Project, the mean grade point average was less than 1.5 before the
half-year UCLA intervention; afterwards, it was over 2. Conversely, the
number of classes
failed by students was over 35 before the intervention, while following the
intervention it had fallen to about 7.
School success is not the only issue in untreated traumatic stress. The
onset of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms is often delayed, and their
magnitude over time often increases. In UCLA's 1997 study of its pilot
program for early adolescents exposed to catastrophic trauma and death, not
only did the school-based trauma-grief focused intervention significantly
alleviate chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, but traumatized
adolescents in the no-treatment control group experienced a significant
worsening of symptoms. These are the children who can be expected, as a
result of their trauma, to drop out and act out, and in many cases to be
lifelong burdens on society's safety nets and its jails.
When we were in uniform in Vietnam, we believed that our efforts were being
made on behalf of our country and our future generations. Those of us
familiar with the vision of a new heaven and a new earth in Isaiah 65
identify especially with verse 23: "They shall not labor in vain, or bear
children for sudden terror." It is therefore especially troubling to us
that some in our future generations are being crippled, possibly for life,
by experiences of trauma very similar to those we ourselves know all too
well.
Traumatic stress of our young people due to urban violence is a problem
which exists in every part of our nation. We call upon State and National
Legislators all across the country to take actions appropriate to their own
scopes of responsibility to authorize and fund programs like the UCLA
program, which has been able to make such a dramatic positive impact on the
lives of young people.
Return to Peace and Justice Statements.