UNICEF International Anti-violence Week
Hello everyone,
This week, UNICEF is holding an anti-bullying week annually to raise awareness; provide self-help intervention; and fight against public stigma about bullying. As part of the trauma community, we held responsible for fulfilling this mission.
According to UNICEF, school violence has posed dangerous detrimental effects on both psychological and physical adolescent’s health: Physical injury, Anxiety, Depression, Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and suicidal thoughts.
- Victims of bullying in their childhood are more susceptible to bullying at work when they grow up.
- Globally, 150 millions of students -aged 13 to 15- report experiencing peer-to-peer violence in and out of school.
- Around 720 million school-aged children live in countries where they are not fully protected by law from corporal punishment at school.
More information about UNICEF anti-bullying week
If you see other people currently facing bullying, or currently experiencing bullying, please reach out for reliable help such as calling national hotlines, reporting to authorities.
If you have trauma about bullying, this is the perfect place for you, as we hold a discussion on Monday weekly, which offers anonymity, empathy, and understanding.
Discussion
What can parents,teachers, and peers do to prevent bullying? What laws must be passed to protect victims of bullying? How can we deal with trauma about bullying?
This post was written by a member of the Trauma Sub-Community Writing Team. You can find a masterpost with all the posts of this team linked here. If you want to join the team, please apply here. Also, please comment if you want to be tagged in future posts.
@Eitas
Thank you so much for writing this important post!
I've collected some strategies for people who get bullied and for bystanders for one of my check-ins. They are:
If you're bullied yourself:
- Decide when you respond; sometimes it might be better to avoid the person.
- Make eye contact to signal that you're self-confident.
- Try to make space between you and the bully and limit your interactions.
- Document the offences to use when filing a complaint or reporting the bully's actions.
- Consider working with a mental health professional to cope with the mental effects of bullying.
- Talk to your co-workers/students, friends, and family to feel supported and not alone. (source 2)
If you're a bystander:
- use humour to redirect the conversation
- walk with the victim to help diffuse potential interactions
- check in with the bullied person to let them know that you support them. (source 1)
