The Aftershocks: How the Psychological and Physical Abuse at Residential Schools Contributed to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
The discriminating and punitive experiences that traumatized the children of British Columbia’s residential school system has stayed with them for years in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The survivors of these schools have experienced devastating events creating psychological scars that would last a lifetime. In Jennifer Mitchell’s article, “Indian Princess #134: Cultural Assimilation at St. Joseph’s Mission” she provides evidence that the native children at the residential schools experienced daily abuse and neglect from their Catholic caretakers, an integral part of these children’s daily experiences. She interviews her mother, a survivor of the residential school system, and uncovers the disturbing way her mother and the other children were treated. These aboriginal children have experienced isolation from their families and culture, the suppression of their native tongue, harsh punishments, lack of nutrition, and the forceful assimilation into a new culture and religion which amounted to fundamental psychological abuse. Mitchell describes the horrid ill-treatment that the native children endured throughout the residential school system, her article inspires questions of how these past events affected them psychologically once they left the schools and returned to their communities. The Mental Health Profiles for a Sample of British Columbia’s Aboriginal Survivors of the Canadian Residential School System notes that native people “experience mental illnesses, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at significantly higher rates than members of the dominant Canadian culture” triggered by the harsh lifestyle at the residential schools (Corrado, et al. 18). This paper attempts to explore not only the psychological trauma experienced in the residential school system but also how it affects the survivors many years after leaving.
Many Canadians view the residential school system as part of the distant past, although in many ways, this is a misconception. The first residential schools were put in place in the 1870s, and the last residential school did not close its doors until 1996 (The BC Teachers’ Federation: Educating for truth and reconciliation). Many of the leaders, teachers, parents, and grandparents of today’s Aboriginal communities are residential school survivors and still carry with them the effects of the schools. The goal of residential schools was to assimilate the Aboriginal people by stripping them of their language, culture, and familial bonds. The Canadian government wanted the Aboriginal people to abandon their traditional beliefs and adopt western-based values and religions. Many children experienced psychological, physical, and sexual abuse during their time at the residential schools, furthermore many of those now-adult survivors have continuing negative impact.
DSM also known as The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders by the American Psychiatric Association, used to aid clinicians and researchers to diagnose and classify mental disorders, defines Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD as the:
”direct or personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury, or other threat to one’s physical integrity; or witnessing an event “that involves death, injury or a threat to the physical integrity of another person”…”The person’s response to the event must involve intense fear, helplessness, or “horror” (American Psychiatric Association).
DSM is a widely used psychiatric guide formed by the American Psychiatric Association that aids clinicians and researchers to diagnose and classify mental disorders. I will be drawing upon DSM to provide evidence to justify my claim that the abuse the survivors of the schools endured would affect their mental health and potentially cause PTSD.
The complexity and extent of exposure to traumatic events by Aboriginal people suggest a potentially high rate of PTSD as well as other psychiatric disorders. An investigation conducted by Dr. Corrado and Dr. Cohen in 2003, looked into the mental health status of 127 former residential school students in British Columbia. They found that 64.2% had symptoms of PTSD (Corrado and Irwin 18). A similar study by Dr. Gelaye T. Nadew or the International Electronic Journal of Rural and Remote Health Research found a total of 55.2% out of 122 participants met the DSM diagnostic criteria for PTSD (Nadew). These results show that in two separate studies just over half of the survivors of the residential schools were found to have PTSD. However, only a couple of studies based on small groups of residential school survivors does not represent the mental health of all survivors of residential schools. Unfortunately, there are very few studies investigating the prevalence of PTSD in Aboriginal communities in Canada. Some estimates of the prevalence of mental health disorders for Aboriginal peoples in Canada are based on service utilization numbers. However, since “many Aboriginal people do not seek services, it is unlikely these estimates provide actual rates of PTSD” (Brewin, et al. 753).
Some health professionals suggest that the presence of PTSD in the aboriginal community is not based on the traumatic events they encountered but instead link their symptoms to social and economic status and propose that the “poor and disadvantaged shouldn’t be diagnosed with PTSD” (Nadew). However, the reality is that this population is not seeking treatment from professionals instead they are self-medicating with alcohol and other substances. The majority of PTSD-positive participants (91% [n=111]) met alcohol-related disorder criteria, which offers an explanation for the fact that they are not seeking professional assistance (Nadew). The fact that those who met DSM diagnostic criteria for PTSD are a non-treatment-seeking population indicates that PTSD is a significant public health concern.
Brewin, Andrews, and Valentine points out that the impact of a stressor is influenced by a person’s past experiences and current environment, the influence of a collective trauma on well-being needs to be considered in the context of the group’s historical and contemporary stressor experiences. Environmental factors that increase the risk for PTSD involve a lack of social support, additional life stresses or repeated upsetting reminders of the trauma such as financial or other trauma-related losses (Brewin, et al. 748). High levels of life stress in some Aboriginal communities due to poverty, family violence and instability as a result of ongoing intergenerational trauma as a consequence of historical trauma function to increase the risk for PTSD after a traumatic event is experienced. Children returning to their families and communities after leaving the residential schools did not receive the emotional, and psychological support needed to assist them in coping with their traumatic experiences. In some cases, the community simply could not or did not understand the nature of the children’s problems. PTSD was not widely diagnosed in children after residential school likely because their families either did not have the funds to help their children or that they did not know how to help them. Another factor influential in the non-recognition of PTSD when assessing Aboriginal children is the limitation of diagnostic criteria, which do not account for types of traumatic historical events experienced by generations of Aboriginal people.
The abuse the aboriginal children endured at the residential schools would affect many children for years and possibly decades after they left. They were left fearful, lonely, and left without a loving home, which may amount to significant mental health problems including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is critical that more services are available to Aboriginal survivors across Canada. Additional research is needed to investigate other cultural factors in order to comprehend the complexity of PTSD in survivors of the Canadian residential school system. Furthermore, there is a need to develop and implement treatment programs that targeted to heal families and communities. Treatment programs would improve the health and well-being and reinforce the protection of future generations of healthy aboriginals in Canada both mentally and physically.