Additionally, this is the third year that OMH has co-presented the Key Connection Conference. The theme of this year's conference, Building Community, encompasses establishing safety in all levels of survivors' experience, the sense that everyone is working toward a common goal, and the need to continue to move away from a place where people are still arguing about the validity of survivors' stories. Though much work has already been done toward validation, treatment and support, Cave still sees enormous gaps. Survivors need a safety net. An understanding, competent therapist is not enough if a survivor is undermined in other aspects of her or his life.
Healing is a long, multifaceted journey.
Multiple, seamless supports need to be created. In a given community, many different systems work with the same population. The competency of treatment will be based on a given system's knowledge of its own responsibilities, knowledge of other community-based systems, and the added understanding that healing takes place within the context of a person's life and that most people have multiple facets to their lives.