What Is Trauma-Informed Care?
Trauma-informed care is a practice aimed at raising awareness among people about the impact of trauma and how to prevent the re-traumatisation of people that need support and help on their healing journey. Trauma-informed care responds to all signs and symptoms of trauma to provide better support for the health needs of people who experienced some sort of trauma.
Adopting trauma-informed care can improve health outcomes and patient engagement but also plays a vital role in provider and staff wellness. This approach helps reduce hospital admissions or other costs for both the individual and the health and social care services sectors. Trauma-informed care represents a framework that involves understanding the prevalence of trauma and its impact on health and behaviour and recognising the effects and ways to respond to people affected by trauma at some point in their lives.
Furthermore, learning more and understanding trauma and its adversity in policies and procedures leads to lower rates of re-traumatisation and better, positive outcomes for all.
Awareness of the Prevalence of Trauma
Statistics worldwide show that a large number of people have experienced the widespread impact of trauma at some point in their lives. After trauma, medical exams are often performed, and they often involve asking sensitive questions and may feel uncomfortable. So, healthcare providers must remain mindful that many people that ask for help often have a history of trauma.
Some people look for support in behavioural health due to a history of trauma, but they often don’t recognise the effects trauma has on their lives. Although many exposed to trauma don’t show any signs, others show more pronounced symptoms, which ultimately can lead to various health problems. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, trauma can significantly affect who people engage in various areas of life and what their approach towards help would be.
Re-Traumatisation
Re-traumatisation happens when a person experiences, once again, a previous traumatic event, both unconsciously or consciously. This can happen after being exposed to stressors that are similar or circumstance to the original trauma, like a memory, smell, specific spaces, imagery or other.
Therefore, support workers or healthcare providers that offer mental health services need to use a trauma-informed practice and avoid re-traumatisation; here are some ways they can do that:
- Provide supportive and compassionate responses to trauma histories
- Maintain emotional safety by using a non-judgemental approach
- Assess and focus on people's strengths
- Provide a safe and comfortable environment
- Empower people by using a "can do" attitude
- Recognise how stress can show up suddenly and help regulate their response
- Practice compassion
Being supportive and showing people that they can still live fulfilling life even after trauma is something that we should all focus on doing. Acknowledging and accepting people for who they are is vital to avoid re-traumatisation.
A Trauma-Informed Care Approach
The trauma-informed care approach entails a few steps. The first one is to recognise how commonly trauma happens and understand that every person has a unique experience.
The second one is by using a comforting and compassionate tone, explaining all the procedures and steps for further evaluation and support plan, as frequently, sensitive questions will be asked. Helping people feel relaxed and at ease by knowing every step along the way will help build trust and confidence. For someone who has experienced trauma, visiting a doctor’s office, for example, can be a scary place as people don’t always want to share previous experiences because of guilt or shame.
Adopting trauma-informed approaches can improve patient engagement and help reduce avoidable care costs. It also seeks to realise the impact of trauma and understand the way to recovery and actively avoid re-traumatisation. Trauma-informed care must be adopted at both organisational and clinical levels as a comprehensive approach. Only that way we can see even and sustainable results.
At Leaf Complex Care, we adopt a trauma-informed approach to health care and ensure that our practices are in alignment with the physical and emotional needs of every individual we serve.
Key Principles of Trauma-Informed Care
Principles of trauma-informed care take into account any trauma that people might have experienced in their lives. The goal of a trauma-informed approach is to prevent re-traumatisation and prevent people from continuing to look for care for an extended period of time.
Professionals that use this approach must fully understand the effects of trauma and carefully devise a plan for healing. These professionals constantly upgrade their policies to improve their implementation of the trauma-informed care approach. Adopting trauma-informed care is not accomplished by using a specific checklist or a method. It requires full attention, awareness and compassion on both organisational and clinical levels but also following the fundamental principles of the approach of a trauma-informed practice.
Safety
People have to feel safe when others care for them. For example, medical professionals should ensure people who went through a traumatic event and their families feel physically and emotionally safe while in their care.
Support workers and nurses should establish safe settings that provide people that experienced trauma with a sense of security and create a serene environment. Also, they can provide family members or friends with a sense of safety by acting as a liaison between doctors and other medical professionals.
Trustworthiness
Transparency is essential in building trust between people who experienced trauma and healthcare professionals. In many cases, people fear asking for medical care because they feel they can’t trust anyone. In these cases, support workers, for example, should work on building bonds and creating a sense of trustworthiness with people who experienced trauma.
Also, healthcare professionals should always be transparent about policies and procedures that might impact how people who have experienced trauma react.
Collaboration
Support workers must see the people they care for as partners to develop a personalised treatment plan. By collaborating, the desired result is much easier to achieve. Through collaboration, people who experienced trauma become active participants in their decisions regarding their health.
Empowerment
Support workers need to empower individuals who experienced trauma to help them regain control of their health. To do this, they often share their stories and show they are easy to communicate with. Effective communication is crucial when getting to know someone and allowing them to learn more about you and trust you. A trauma-informed practice promotes a system that helps people to communicate and grow from trauma.
Choice
When dealing with people who experienced trauma, medical professionals have to recognise the experience that person had and involve them in making the decisions. This way, people who experienced trauma can have a say and a choice in decision-making.
Goals of Trauma Informed Care
The main goal of trauma-informed care is to raise awareness about the huge impact trauma has on people’s lives and how to prevent re-traumatisation in settings meant to help with the healing process.
Trauma-informed care raises awareness and protects against further trauma or other health risks for people who experienced trauma. In other words, this approach can be used in all areas of operation to prevent developing even more traumatic experiences and avoid the stress people carry with them.
We are a Trauma-Informed Organisation
The need to address trauma is seen as an essential component of the effective delivery of behavioural support services. With the proactive and compassionate support our support workers at Leaf Complex Care deliver, people can overcome traumatic experiences.
Today, there is an increasing focus on the impact of trauma and how healthcare organisations are helping resolve trauma-related conditions. As a provider under the Catalyst Care Group, we are constantly changing and evolving to meet people’s needs, so we are also focusing on implementing the trauma-informed approach. The increased understanding of the impact trauma has on people’s health and well-being urged us to explore new ways to make services helpful and responsive to people who have experienced trauma.
The concept of a trauma-informed approach is a focal point in multiple service sectors. Our support workers at Leaf Complex Care utilise this approach’s definitions and key principles to implement and understand how the trauma-informed approach can help change lives.
To learn more, contact us today.
