Federal Report Women and Trauma

An interagency report on women and trauma was published in June 2011 by the Federal Partners Committee on Women and Trauma.  Trauma occurs when an external threat overwhelms a person’s coping resources.  Trauma can result from a wide variety of events, including experiencing or witnessing violent crime, accidents, abandonment, physical or sexual abuse or neglect, cultural dislocation, terrorism, wars, historical violence, institutional trauma, and natural disasters.  Unaddressed trauma experienced by women, including trauma caused by violence, affects all of us.  Advances in the science and practice of behavioral health have helped us to understand that trauma, including trauma caused by violence, have a huge impact on the health, the economy, and even the security of our Nation. 

The Federal Partners Committee on Women and Trauma is an outgrowth of the Federal Intergovernmental Partnership on Mental Health Transformation Working Group on Women and Trauma of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA).  Beginning in (year) six Federal agencies worked collaboratively for more than a year to highlight the scope of trauma in the lives of women and girls and to develop collective strategies for action.  This report results from the work of the SAMHSA Working Group and from a Roundtable held on April 29, 2010 with Federal, State, tribal, private and community stakeholders working with women and girls affected by trauma across multiple services sectors and settings. The focus of this report is on trauma associated with violence against women.  Violence against women occurs to women of all ages and in all settings, and it affects all of our social institutions. 

The report is a call to action, not a comprehensive review. The agencies involved represent only a subset of all agencies whose constituents may be affected by trauma, and many important related issues, such as HIV/AIDS, prevention, housing, and cultural issues, are only touched on in this document. However, the report takes an important first step by describing the level of violence against women and girls in our society and exploring its consequences.