00:00:00:00 - 00:00:04:15 Unknown Helping to Heal: Conversations About Trauma-Informed Principles. 00:00:04:15 - 00:00:14:06 Unknown This video is hosted by The Link Center. Improving Access to Mental Health Services for People with I/DD, Brain Injury, and other Disabilities. 00:00:14:06 - 00:00:18:10 Unknown This video will focus on Transparency and Trustworthiness, 00:00:18:10 - 00:00:34:22 Unknown ♪ Dearie my dearie we all need a voice, in a world that convinces us we’re here by choice. Soon as rain falls police make sport, of running us from the awnings and ruining our fort. 00:00:34:22 - 00:01:10:07 Unknown My name is Monica and I'm a trauma survivor. And I also have a disability, recognized by the psychiatric associations. All of them. And, my disability makes transparency important to me because, my continued recovery depends on it. I suffer from severe bouts of, sheer terror and, anxiety, and, I need to know someone's intent and purpose before I even let them near me. 00:01:10:09 - 00:01:15:08 Unknown And I'm going to talk to Tyrome. And can you introduce yourself? 00:01:15:08 - 00:01:20:22 Unknown Yep. My name is Tyrome Launderville and it's nice to be able to speak 00:01:20:22 - 00:01:47:04 Unknown So when you when we talked before, you had told me about, how you feel about transparency and trustworthiness, which is, one of the SAM- SAMHSA principles. And you said something that struck me was, you felt that kids should learn early on how to cope when they're feeling, okay or normal. 00:01:47:08 - 00:02:24:21 Unknown Correct. I think that in facilities and institutions, when a child is ... going through the phases of being sent away from their families, they don't have that big brother, big sister, you know, younger sister, younger brother experience, and they don't have experiences with their mother and father. So being raised, you're pretty much at me, myself, who's had these experiences and have been raised in facilities and institutions, from nine years old to 18, and being raised as a teenager, from a child to a teenager, to a pretty much an 18 year old adult. 00:02:24:23 - 00:02:34:03 Unknown I didn't have that mother connection. And I feel like in those moments and when 00:02:34:03 - 00:02:40:05 Unknown I'm younger, they are perfect and exact. 00:02:40:23 - 00:02:42:23 Unknown They're they're moments when I just need taught. 00:02:42:23 - 00:02:47:08 Unknown Help people understand what is happening with their supports and services. 00:02:47:08 - 00:03:17:21 Unknown I need to understand. I need help understanding what's going on. Why do I, why am I here, need to be able to trust to what people are telling me. I don't want to just be left out of my, my services. You know. Because I didn’t know what was going on every day. And even though I may be an adult, children don't quite understand or know what's going on because they haven’t fully, haven't developed. 00:03:17:23 - 00:03:38:19 Unknown But I'm still a child. I'm still a human being, you know? I don't know what's going on. I'm scared. And you just telling me everything's going to be okay. Doesn't really, you know, help much. I wants to know. And I wanted to know as a child. Why am I here? Do I have something wrong with me? Is there something that I can do to help fix me? 00:03:38:21 - 00:04:02:05 Unknown But I didn't get to know any of that until I was probably 14 or 15 years old. You know, is, as a child in these facilities, they are treated as children, which is valid, you know, they're kids. But I also wants to be treated with respect. I wants to know what's going on and not be left out. 00:04:02:05 - 00:04:15:07 Unknown Since you since you bring that up about spending your, childhood in facilities, what do you feel like people could have done to support you better? 00:04:18:05 - 00:04:34:12 Unknown You know, there's there's a lot there's there's just so much, so much. I think a big thing with me, and I kind of mentioned this the last time we spoke, even at the steering committee in DC. 00:04:34:14 - 00:04:46:05 Unknown Staff need to be properly trained. Staff need to be hired who aren't aggressive. 00:04:46:07 - 00:05:06:10 Unknown In my time at my facilities that I have been to, I have been hit by multiple staff. More than once. Because they just don't know how to properly do restraints or their their feelings get taken over their job. So they do what they want to. What they feel is best at the moment. 00:05:06:10 - 00:05:11:10 Unknown Have a good understanding of what someone needs to positively support them. 00:05:11:10 - 00:05:19:24 Unknown I think just honestly just just proper staff training and understanding the huge understanding which should be you shouldn't even be really said. 00:05:19:24 - 00:05:38:14 Unknown That is something that people need to already know and they should already be aware is never to hit a child, especially a child who is in crisis. Don't, abuse is never the answer. And that child may be hitting you and doing everything he can to be 00:05:38:14 - 00:05:39:09 Unknown a [censored], 00:05:39:09 - 00:05:48:16 Unknown but in that moment, that child is not supposed to be touched unless it's for their own safety. 00:05:48:18 - 00:06:21:04 Unknown That's trustworthiness, right? And and that right there plays a huge part in trustworthiness and safety as well. A huge factor in safety because me as a child ... to be hit upon or going to, you know, just be abused. I'm being, I’m going there to get help. Right. Right. And in and and I said this the last time to me as a teenager and an adult or a child, I may listen to you in that moment, but I also may not listen to you. 00:06:21:06 - 00:06:31:02 Unknown You can't get mad at me for not choosing not to because as I, I learn differently than... Everyone person is their own self. They 00:06:31:02 - 00:06:34:17 Unknown Understand how the person you support learns best. 00:06:34:17 - 00:06:48:05 Unknown learn differently in their own kind of ways. There are people who will learn like a snap of the finger, but they're also people who are like me, who will do what they want until they fail and then pick up from that. 00:06:48:07 - 00:06:52:12 Unknown And then there are people who will just, you know, it just takes time. 00:06:52:12 - 00:07:18:15 Unknown So a big thing that I think that also happens quite frequently in these facilities is, is and I'm going to start with this me, myself, I am Tyrome Launderville. I am me. No one else. No one else can choose what I decide to do. No one else can receive my consequences as an outcome of my choices. Me, myself am Tyrome. 00:07:18:17 - 00:07:24:01 Unknown It's like 00:07:24:03 - 00:07:41:20 Unknown Now on the path or the the the side of medical and and terminology and stuff like that. And the diagnoses that are on paper. There's all this stuff that I have is on paper to say that I but I know myself better than anyone. 00:07:41:20 - 00:07:45:06 Unknown See people as more than what is written about them. 00:07:45:06 - 00:07:55:20 Unknown And I wish that in these facilities that yes, I mean, I had issues in the past that may not have as much anymore, but I wish that people would kind of see that. 00:07:55:20 - 00:08:22:10 Unknown Like, yes, I may have these issues, but I just I'm improving I may not be as, as, as fast as it may be, but just because there's been these issues that are on paper in the past that I may have been mainly to begin with, doesn't mean that I genuinely actually have them. And that goes along was recently it was it was found out that in my diagnosis sheets I have bipolar disorder. 00:08:22:12 - 00:08:46:23 Unknown Come to find out, I never had that. I don't even have that you know, it's it's it's even just small simple stuff like that where I've been told I have bipolar disorder and it just gets thrown on the sheet. Come to find out that I never even had that. Because bipolar disorder is such a huge, a huge thing, a huge diagnosis that that is similar to so many other things, 00:08:48:06 - 00:08:53:08 Unknown So that I can understand is. 00:08:53:10 - 00:09:17:12 Unknown I want to I wanted to have a better understanding of myself and what was going on in my past when I was younger. And as a child I honestly I think that that was probably one of the important things that I needed at the time, even though I did need help. Even though there were behaviors that I just needed. 00:09:17:14 - 00:09:33:08 Unknown I wanted someone I could properly trust and speak to who would just be real with me, and not just give me the you have this, but everything's going to be okay. Just, just, you know, the small, easy way. I want someone to be real. 00:09:33:22 - 00:09:46:08 Unknown Special thanks to Monica Wafford and Tyrone Launderville for sharing their personal stories, thoughts, and profound experiences to help improve the lives of those who have experienced trauma. 00:09:46:08 - 00:09:54:21 Unknown The Link Center Improving Access to Mental Health Services for People with I/DD, Brain Injury, and other Disabilities. 00:09:54:23 - 00:10:16:06 Unknown With heartfelt gratitude to Alissa Johnson for permission to use her powerful music. She says, “I forget who it was that said torment makes great art, but I feel like the statement is true. Music is a functioning, healthy coping mechanism I use to handle my trauma, and it has the same effect on the people around me. ” 00:10:16:06 - 00:10:24:16 Unknown The Link Center Improving Access to Mental Health Services for People with I/DD, Brain Injury, and other Disabilities. 00:10:24:16 - 00:10:57:16 Unknown ♪ Dearie my dearie we all need a voice, in a world that convinces us we’re here by choice. Soon as rain falls police make sport, of running us from the awnings and ruining our fort. Oh won’t you save me, save me from the things, that were supposed to save me. me.