CMHS Sponsored Initiatives

Dare to Vision Conference
The Women, Co-occurring Disorders and Violence Study (WCDVS)
Dare to Act Conference

Dare to Vision Conference

In 1994, CMHS convened the Dare to Vision Conference to address the very high rate of women with physical and sexual abuse histories in the public mental health system. This conference provided a forum for survivors and consumers to discuss their trauma histories and to stress the importance of and value in including trauma in treatment services. This forum also provided an opportunity for these women to highlight the re-victimization experienced in residential or in-patient settings through such practices as seclusion and restraint, which is often used by staff to control angry and aggressive behavior that is rooted in prior trauma experiences. This led to a system-wide reform of practices that has had a major impact on mental health services delivery.

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The Women, Co-occurring Disorders and Violence Study (WCDVS)

WCDVS grew from the increasing realization by mental health and substance abuse providers that most of the women in their systems had long-standing histories of physical and/or sexual abuse. The 5-year study, co-sponsored by all three SAMHSA Centers, provided compelling information about the interrelation between violence, trauma, and co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders. The study provided recommendations for “trauma-integrated services counseling” for these women. WCDVS also sparked the development of guiding principles for positive change:

• Service providers must better recognize the presence of trauma, past and present, as a central concern in a woman's life.
• Women should be encouraged to play an active role in goal-setting for their services plan and to develop their capacity for self-directed healing, and that they will benefit from a better understanding of how to do so, from the onset.
• Symptoms are adaptations to traumatic events—a means by which survivors seek to manage the negative emotional and psychological experiences precipitated by trauma using whatever “self-soothing” means that are available to them at the time.
• Providers must understand how trauma is triggered and how to help women create strength-based safe "spaces" in which women can manage their symptoms.
• Providers should be mindful of the ways in which their own practices and policies might put women in danger, physically and emotionally, or bring about re-traumatization.
• There must be a more widespread and comprehensive recognition that violence and trauma significantly impact a person's belief system, self-perception, and relationship with others.
• Providers need to meet women where they "are" mentally and emotionally, with careful readiness assessments, pacing, and a long term perspective.

A number of publications related to WCDVS are available on the Publications page.

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Dare to Act Conference

In 2004, CMHS sponsored another agenda-setting milestone, the Dare to Act Conference: Trauma Survivors, Practitioners, Researchers, and Policymakers Creating a Blueprint for Change. Participants shared recent WCDVS and related research and evaluation findings regarding trauma-specific services, strategies for implementing trauma-informed care within the fields of mental health and substance abuse and related social services, and personal stories of survival, healing, recovery, and triumph. It marked a starting point from which to address trauma and recovery in a comprehensive way.

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