Trauma and Resilience Key Concepts in Mental
Health and Disaster Response Questions and
answers
Trauma - ✅✅A broad term that describes an individual's physical, psychological, or emotional
response to a terrible or adverse event or series of events.
Early attachment relationships - ✅✅Critical to aid the developing child and neurological systems to
learn to develop resilience in the face of adversity.
Toxic stress - ✅✅Results from prolonged activation of the physiologic stress response system and
alters neural circuitry and genetics.
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) - ✅✅Negative experiences in the areas of abuse, neglect,
and/or household dysfunction that occur during childhood.
Bias - ✅✅The tendency of an individual to make broad decisions or stereotypes about other
individuals or groups based on thoughts, feelings, or perceptions rather than evidence.
Crisis intervention - ✅✅Has four phases of stress arousal that the nurse must recognize, each with
distinct signs of escalating distress.
Disaster management - ✅✅Involves mental health care for those impacted by the disaster and crisis,
requiring a trauma-informed approach.
Primary prevention - ✅✅Important at the individual and societal level, involving parental education
on positive parenting and bolstering economic support for those at risk.
Trauma-informed care - ✅✅Involves taking an individualized approach that recognizes the impact of
trauma and appropriate interventions that help a client recover.
, Treatment for trauma-related disorders - ✅✅Involves learning to live with the history of trauma and
lessening the impact of the manifestations.
Positive protective factors - ✅✅Cultivate resilience and buffer the impact of adversity on a client's
sense of well-being.
Crisis - ✅✅A situation or event which causes emotional or cognitive stress to those involved.
Cultural humility - ✅✅A dynamic process of ongoing self-reflection that requires critical analysis of
one's own implicit biases.
Culturally competent care - ✅✅The ongoing ability to understand, appreciate, and respectfully
interact with cultures and belief systems that differ from one's own.
Disaster - ✅✅An incident or event that could end human life or cause health-related harm, requiring
immediate response.
Epigenetics - ✅✅Genetic alterations that determine whether a gene will be activated or deactivated.
Explicit bias - ✅✅Known or acknowledged beliefs about characteristics of groups or individuals, often
stereotypes based on thoughts, feelings, or perceptions.
Fear conditioning - ✅✅Describes the strengthening neural circuitry that creates a biological memory
of a traumatic event.
Fear extinction - ✅✅Gradual autonomic decrease in heart rate and blood pressure when the fear-
producing stimulus is withdrawn.
Genetic vulnerability - ✅✅Genetic predisposition to develop disease when interacting with
environmental factors.
Health and Disaster Response Questions and
answers
Trauma - ✅✅A broad term that describes an individual's physical, psychological, or emotional
response to a terrible or adverse event or series of events.
Early attachment relationships - ✅✅Critical to aid the developing child and neurological systems to
learn to develop resilience in the face of adversity.
Toxic stress - ✅✅Results from prolonged activation of the physiologic stress response system and
alters neural circuitry and genetics.
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) - ✅✅Negative experiences in the areas of abuse, neglect,
and/or household dysfunction that occur during childhood.
Bias - ✅✅The tendency of an individual to make broad decisions or stereotypes about other
individuals or groups based on thoughts, feelings, or perceptions rather than evidence.
Crisis intervention - ✅✅Has four phases of stress arousal that the nurse must recognize, each with
distinct signs of escalating distress.
Disaster management - ✅✅Involves mental health care for those impacted by the disaster and crisis,
requiring a trauma-informed approach.
Primary prevention - ✅✅Important at the individual and societal level, involving parental education
on positive parenting and bolstering economic support for those at risk.
Trauma-informed care - ✅✅Involves taking an individualized approach that recognizes the impact of
trauma and appropriate interventions that help a client recover.
, Treatment for trauma-related disorders - ✅✅Involves learning to live with the history of trauma and
lessening the impact of the manifestations.
Positive protective factors - ✅✅Cultivate resilience and buffer the impact of adversity on a client's
sense of well-being.
Crisis - ✅✅A situation or event which causes emotional or cognitive stress to those involved.
Cultural humility - ✅✅A dynamic process of ongoing self-reflection that requires critical analysis of
one's own implicit biases.
Culturally competent care - ✅✅The ongoing ability to understand, appreciate, and respectfully
interact with cultures and belief systems that differ from one's own.
Disaster - ✅✅An incident or event that could end human life or cause health-related harm, requiring
immediate response.
Epigenetics - ✅✅Genetic alterations that determine whether a gene will be activated or deactivated.
Explicit bias - ✅✅Known or acknowledged beliefs about characteristics of groups or individuals, often
stereotypes based on thoughts, feelings, or perceptions.
Fear conditioning - ✅✅Describes the strengthening neural circuitry that creates a biological memory
of a traumatic event.
Fear extinction - ✅✅Gradual autonomic decrease in heart rate and blood pressure when the fear-
producing stimulus is withdrawn.
Genetic vulnerability - ✅✅Genetic predisposition to develop disease when interacting with
environmental factors.
