In this section, we will talk about trauma-informed care. Trauma-informed care is a way of delivering services, for example in hospitals, treatment centres, etc. that uses practices that acknowledge that you have gone through a trauma. It recognizes the impacts of trauma on an individual and has policies and procedures that take that into account. You may have also heard the terms trauma care and trauma treatment before.
Trauma care refers to treating severe bodily injuries. For example, if someone has been in a severe accident and is rushed to the emergency room, they are a trauma patient.
Trauma treatment refers to treatments and approaches for treating the trauma itself. For example, going to counseling or doing cognitive behavioural therapy.
Sometimes the services and practices designed to offer support can be trauma-inducing, increasing the risk of someone who has experienced trauma to be retraumatized. For example, an individual who has experienced physical/sexual abuse/assault may experience painful memories and can be retraumatized if they were to placed in restraints at a treatment centre.
There is an increased focus on noticing and understanding how trauma can affect an individual and how it is connected to one’s physical and mental health, and this has led to changes in treatment facilities and treatment plans to adopt a “trauma-informed” approach.
Trauma-informed care is not treating symptoms of trauma, rather it recognizes that an individual has experienced trauma and seeks to deliver care in a way that promotes choices, safety, trust and accessibility and integrates knowledge of trauma in all aspects of its service delivery.
It takes an approach of trying to understand the entirety of a person. It recognizes that you as an individual are the most knowledgeable about your own experiences and places an emphasis on an individual having choice and control in their treatment.