Too scared a stray bullet will pierce their front windows, some Baltimore families avoid sitting in their living rooms at night.
Some struggle with the loss of their parents, sons and daughters to shootings and drugs.
Others are haunted by nightmares of their deployments in Iraq.
All of these harsh realities of Baltimore, paired with the city?s university researchers and medical centers, make it an ideal place for one of 10 trauma centers across the nation specifically geared toward helping families, the center?s architects say.
“We have families who never go out at night. Think about what that means in terms of their psyche,” said Fred Strieder, a professor at the School of Social Work at University of Maryland, Baltimore. The university, along with the university?s School of Medicine, Kennedy Krieger Family Center and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, is starting a Family-Informed Trauma Treatment Center.
“We have grandmothers who spend all of their medication money taking care of their grandchildren,” Strieder said. “Trauma has such lasting impacts in terms of how people see and navigate the world. It changes who you think you are.”
UM was recently awarded a $2.4 million federal grant for the center, which will help families in the community and at offices throughout the city by developing interventions for poor and military populations.
“Traumatic experiences such as domestic violence, school violence and child abuse derail families,” said LaurelKiser, a professor at the School of Medicine, who believes living in Baltimore?s roughest neighborhoods is traumatic in itself.
“Baltimore has a very high murder rate and struggles to keep schools safe, so a lot of the kids we deal with don?t feel safe at school. The stresses that go along with that have significant impact on the family?s ability to provide support for kids.”
Strieder, who helps world-weary residents as director of the school?s Family Connections program, which sends social workers into the homes of the city?s troubled, sees this partnership between UM and hospitals as a way to build upon the work his center already does.
