Content area
Full text
Aboriginal people are overrepresented among the homeless in urban centres across Canada. Though very little information exists to explain this phenomenon, increasing evidence from the growing number of mental health studies conducted in Aboriginal communities suggests that trauma is a critical contributor to an array of personal, family, and community behaviours. Specifically, the transmission of trauma from one generation to the next has left some individuals without the necessary skills to deal with trauma.
While post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been identified as a possible explanation for mental health and addiction issues experienced by some homeless individuáis, this diagnosis fails to consider the unique historic and cultural experiences of Aboriginal people in Canada. Over the past 15 years, the notion of intergenerational trauma as an explanation for the array of social conditions that exist within Aboriginal communities has been put forward by a number of researchers working with indigenous communities around the world (Braveheart-Jordon & De Bruyn, 1995; Hodgson, 1990; Kirmayer, Brass, & Tait, 2000; Phillips, 1999; Waldram, 1997).
This article provides a summary of a study undertaken in 2004 to explore the link between Aboriginal homelessness and intergenerational trauma. Through in-depth interviews with 16 Aboriginal men who used the services of a hostel for Aboriginal men in downtown Toronto, the study explored the men's personal and family histories, seeking links between personal homelessness and intergenerational trauma. An interpretation of the data from these interviews and from a focus group with other homeless Aboriginal men isolated the indicators of intergenerational trauma within four domains: individual, family, community, and nation. The indicators of intergenerational trauma within these domains are synthesized in the Intergenerational Trauma Model. This model is predicated on the assumption that public polkies have disrupted relations among the four domains ana the resulting trauma has incubated negative social conditions for Aboriginal people, making them significantly more vulnerable to a number of threatening conditions, including homekssness.
Les Autochtones sont surreprésentés parmi les personnes sans-abri des centres urbains du Canada, Même si très peu d'information existe pour expliquer ce phénomène, de plus en de plus de preuves provenant du nombre croissant d'études en santé mentale menées dans des communautés autochtones démontrent que le traumatisme contribue de façon significative à tout un ensembk de comportements personnels,...