Chapter 28: Violence & Community Health

Violence & Community Health introduces the People, Poverty, Power (3P) Model, which examines how interactions between oppressive societal structures and social conditions like poverty perpetuate community-based violence. The discussion is grounded in trauma and violence-informed care (TVIC), a practice that acknowledges the cumulative impact of stressful experiences and prioritizes emotional and physical safety for all individuals. Central to this analysis is the Power and Control Wheel, used to assess how power imbalances manifest at the individual, institutional, and systemic levels, including forms of colonialism, patriarchy, and racism. The chapter explores various manifestations of violence, such as intimate partner violence (IPV), family violence, sexualized violence, and the abuse of older adults, while highlighting that these issues disproportionately impact women, children, Indigenous peoples, and the LGBTQ2S+ community. It also addresses modern health threats like human trafficking, cyberbullying, and stalking, linking them to broader social determinants of health and the cycle of oppression. Community health nurses are encouraged to reframe "vulnerable populations" as "people under threat" to highlight the structural injustices causing ill health and to advocate for healthy public policy. Additionally, the text describes the concept of atraumatic care to minimize clinical stress and discusses the phenomenon of vicarious trauma, where nurses themselves experience cognitive shifts due to repeated exposure to trauma narratives.