State-Of-Black-Oregon-2015

CASE STUDY 1LYDIA SERVES HER COMMUNITY WITHA TRAUMA-INFORMED APPROACHAs a Community Health Worker (CHW),Lydia Gray Holifield relies on culturalcompetency and personal experienceto serve her community. Her workincludes home visits and helping socializechildren twice a month. She also helps pregnantwomen by serving as a doula. They ask her toaccompany them to doctors’ appointmentsbecause they fear going alone. Since she begandoing this, Lydia says her clients now asktheir doctors more questions and investigatemedicines on their own.By acting as an advocate for patients, Lydiaeases the distrust many in the Black communityhave of the healthcare system. “We’re notletting doctors use our patients any more asguinea pigs,” she says. “They always want togive our sisters a C-section because it gets themin and out the door faster. I don’t like that.”Despite such underlying tensions, Lydia says theresponse from medical staff has been positive.“You just have to let them know we’re here,” shesays. “You don’t get to do that to our people anymore. You don’t just get to give them a drug you’rebasically testing on us to see if it’s going to work.”In addition to working with pregnant mothers,Lydia also helps a number of clients whoare domestic violence survivors—a situationshe knows all too well. “When you get out,you’re scared to death,” she says. “You don’tunderstand. You don’t know where to go.Many times in the African American community,these stories of domestic violence remain familysecrets, passed down from one generation tothe next generation.Lydia has made a decision that she wants the“family curse” to stop. She uses her experienceto empower other women to seek support.Lydia says, “The difference between the two isthat physical abuse is something that happensinstantly. Mental abuse is something thathappens every day, over and over again.”Domestic violence is something people don’talways talk about in the Black community.Lydia’s situation began improving when shefound support through an advocate at HealingRoots, a culturally specific domestic violenceprogram for Blacks. The program helped her torecognize various forms of abuse and gave herthe tools to rebuild her self-esteem. “Every dayI work the program,” she says. “I remember thatI’m beautiful. That I’m worthy. My self-worthis important. I remember that I don’t have tosacrifice who I am because of someone else’smistakes or someone else’s issues.”In addition to being in a room with otherBlack women and being able to have honest,straightforward discussions, Lydia says havingtrauma-informed support was crucial toimproving her condition. Today, Lydia is thrivingin her role as a community education advocate.22