Mayor Thomas Menino, backed by community religious leaders and officials from the Boston Public Health Commission, announced plans to make trauma counseling more available to Boston residents affected by violence.
The mayor and officials from the Boston Public Health Commission, speaking at the Roxbury Community College Tuesday morning said the Trauma Project will be a collaborative effort with the Boston TenPoint Coalition, a Christian anti-violence group, to deal with the emotional aftermath of violence on a community.
Under the new plan, area religious leaders would receive training to become more adept at counseling trauma victims.
Dr. Peggy Johnson of the BPHC said the Boston Emergency Service Team, which offers 24-hour emergency psychiatric help, is trained to deal with immediate crises while ministers would be able to offer long-term assistance.
Johnson said it is important for members of the faith community to receive training to recognize mental health conditions associated with trauma because they are usually among the first people to have contact with individuals affected by violence.
Menino thanked the religious community for supporting his project, saying, “There’s no set of leaders who play a more important role than the ministers.”
Menino said this project was an important step to address violence issues in Boston.
“Contrary to what other people say, we are working together,” Menino said.
Reverend Jeffrey Brown of the Union Baptist Church in Cambridge said he has gained first-hand experience with trauma victims after counseling Boston children who have witnessed violent crimes, even in their own households.
Brown added that his experience working with traumatized victims of Hurricane Katrina helped him counsel people in his own community.
“I thank God that we’re able to stand and not go quietly into the night, but stand as a beacon light,” Brown told Menino and his fellow ministers.
According to the City of Boston website, the Boston Police Department reported 73 homicides in 2005 — a 20 percent increase over the previous year — and 4,434 cases of aggravated assault, which was a 7 percent increase.
Johnson said more than 80 percent of violence cases result in trauma symptoms such as depression, flashbacks, guilt, nightmares and a heightened sense of vulnerability.
“Locks and keys are not the answer to solving some of these problems,” Johnson said.
City Councilor Charles Yancey (Dorchester, Mattapan) acknowledged the importance of trauma awareness in a Feb. 2 article in The Daily Free Press.
“We’re talking about human beings and the shock they experience. We should never accept the violence and we should never accept the trauma,” Yancey said.