Trauma exposure and public health ethics

Trauma, trauma exposure, and impacts of trauma and trauma exposure are areas of public health concern that have sometimes been discounted or poorly understood among and in relation to other public health concerns. Impacts of trauma and trauma exposure have acquired increased attention as public health personnel and systems have been called to respond to mass interpersonal violence, large-scale natural disasters and social calamities, new epidemiologic evidence of the scope and prevalence of sexual, partner, and family violence, war, refugees of war, and veterans of war, evidence of syndemic associations of violence with other public health concerns such as HIV/AIDS, increasing rates of suicide across the United States, and other alarms.  Biological, neuropsychological, epigenetic and other scientific inquiries have raised awareness regarding behavioral, social, and across-generational effects of trauma and trauma exposure.  Considering current understandings of trauma, trauma exposure, and impacts of these may provide important perspectives for reviewing our current public health code of ethics (PHLS, 2002) and building any code of ethics that intends to present the ideals of  contemporary public health institutions.  For example constructs defining health and safety and well being, public health and public safety, may be in conversation.  For example fresh conceptualizations of community and interdependence, trust and solidarity may emerge.   Our discussion of these issues will contribute to assessment of our current public health code of ethics.