Navigating Collective Trauma: Transform COVID-19 Trauma into Resiliency

Background/Purpose

Every culture, race, socioeconomic status, and age group experiences trauma, manifesting and affecting the individual differently. A pandemic is considered a global and collective trauma that contributes to worsening physical and mental health, affects all facets of one's life, and creates lasting repercussions. As a therapeutic approach, trauma-informed care and support can help individuals recognize and understand their trauma and reduce the likelihood of re-traumatization. Assuring safety, understanding protective options, and working cooperatively with others are part of the managing process (Institute on Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care, 2015). Identifying and addressing trauma triggers is crucial to understanding trauma experience and challenges. The therapeutic approach allows professionals to address the concerns of their clients while understanding the impact of trauma. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about physical, emotional, and psychological harm among people. Lockdown, hospital overloads, and social distancing restricted access to needed services, leading to a difficulty in minimizing harm and adapting to the rapid changes (Turchioe et al., 2021). The purpose of this study is to understand how the U.S and the American people experience, navigate, and respond to a traumatizing event, specifically the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the proposed Trauma-Resiliency Model (TRM) provides a holistic approach to better understand the progression from trauma to resiliency and preventing re-traumatization.

Methods

As part of this study, we conducted a systematic review and conceptual analysis of existing literature on the COVID-19 pandemic as a traumatic distress and how individuals and societies survive, including academic articles, books, and other relevant sources. A keyword search of academic databases such as PubMed, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar was used to identify the literature. A thematic analysis approach was used to analyze the literature and helped to better understand the progression from trauma to resiliency.

Results

The literature was synthesized to develop a conceptual framework, the Trauma-Resiliency Model (TRM) with three approaches to practice: trauma-informed, trauma-protective, and trauma-resiliency, for understanding the health and mental health challenges and resiliency of the pandemic in the individual and social contexts. The conceptualization of a traumatic experience starts with identifying the traumatic stressors and struggles through the loss of quality of life (trauma-informed), and living and existing with the negative outcomes such as lockdowns and social distancing. These experiences lead to a desire to develop strategies and seek external support as well as develop a plan of action to cope with the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic (trauma-protective). Finally, resiliency and stability can bloom as there is a better understanding of living through the trauma and highlighting one’s ability to start anew (trauma-resiliency).

Conclusions

The proposed model helps to conceptualize the road from trauma to resiliency that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic. The model can be utilized by the public in making sense of future pandemics and other traumatizing experiences. Additionally, practitioners can utilize these findings to identify and create more appropriate methods of intervention and improve outcomes for victims of trauma.