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Traumatic Loss and Major Disasters: Strengthening Family and Community Resilience
Author(s) -
WALSH FROMA
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
family process
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.011
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1545-5300
pISSN - 0014-7370
DOI - 10.1111/j.1545-5300.2007.00205.x
Subject(s) - distress , intervention (counseling) , psychology , resilience (materials science) , psychological resilience , community resilience , psychotherapist , psychiatry , engineering , redundancy (engineering) , reliability engineering , physics , thermodynamics
This article presents the core principles and value of a family and community resilience‐oriented approach to recovery from traumatic loss when catastrophic events occur. In contrast to individually based, symptom‐focused approaches to trauma recovery, this multisystemic practice approach contextualizes the distress in the traumatic experience and taps strengths and resources in relational networks to foster healing and posttraumatic growth. The intertwining of trauma and traumatic losses is discussed. Key family and social processes in risk and resilience in traumatic loss situations are outlined. Case illustrations, model programs, and intervention guidelines are described in situations of community violence and major disasters to suggest ways to foster family and community resilience.