Major Trauma Awareness Week

Major Trauma Awareness Week starts on 15th September and finishes on 22nd September.

An annual event, organised by neighbours-and-friends of ours, Day One Trauma, and this year the theme is the role in which the community plays in rehabilitation.

Put simply, there are two types of traumas – emotional and physical. Specifically, you may or may not have heard of polytrauma, a medical term which refers to a series of severe injuries which affect the body’s organs; but it’s this type of trauma which commands such a high degree of care and attention from those around the individual.

When someone has experienced Major Trauma, they can feel like their world has been turned upside down – and may struggle processing what and why their new world looks different. They didn’t ask for it, they didn’t factor into their life the new normal. We refer to it as being like the breakdown of a relationship; the loss of the life you were meant to have can feel palpable, and it’s these feelings which can be incredibly difficult to manage – and that’s before you’ve taken into consideration the physical injuries of a major trauma.

Whilst Day One Trauma are one of the “first on the scene”, although their national charity continues to signpost and support sometime after trauma, our work starts much later – usually months or even years after an episode or accident as the dust settles and the new-normal sets in.

The affect physical and emotional trauma can have on the brain can be substantial; Dr Mayank Saxena best describes the emotional response as “a deeply distressing or disturbing experience which can have a profound physical or emotional impact on a person” and with the NHS reporting that 33% of people who experience trauma will go on to have PTSD, it’s something which cannot be ignored.

The Brain Collective has been addressing our clients’ traumas for some years now, and we’re still amazed by the level of trauma people carry up until reaching out to us. Restlessness nights, nightmares, flashbacks, unhelpful thoughts, easily triggered… so often we find that a traumatic event continues to haunt our clients, unless dealt with.

Our team walk the journey with our clients and their symptoms to pave the way for better days, no matter the level of trauma experienced, because that’s what we’re all about – restoring hope and as Day One Trauma’s theme this year is the importance of community within the recovery journey we’d like to share some of our favourite ways to support someone who has experienced trauma.

Listen – it truly is an art, and giving people space to share allows them to process their thoughts and feelings Be positive – no matter what you face, positivity is a great way to bring an uplifting slant to any conversation Remember to smile – we will always try and make our clients laugh, or smile – for as long as we support one another, there is hope This month let’s take a moment to think about those around us dealing with the effects of-trauma, and reach out to them, from one human to another – that’s a superpower.