What Are the Principles of Trauma Informed Care?

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Why a Complete Picture Forms a Better Care Environment

By integrating trauma informed practice training in the healthcare setting, professionals can quickly determine the care needs of individuals, preventing further unnecessary trauma while establishing a supportive and nurturing environment for patients.

The industry as a whole knows how fundamental time can be when supporting the community – doctors and nurses are already pushed to their limits. Trauma-informed care could help to increase the productivity of surgeries and wards and additionally result in a higher-quality output of resources, offering multiple advantages.

What Is Trauma?

First, we must understand what makes up trauma. Trauma looks and feels different to everyone – while one person may have suffered from a major life event, another might experience repeated instances of distress throughout their life that leave them with long-lasting effects. However, this does not mean that to suffer trauma you must be able to think for yourself: scientific research has proven that trauma can exist in children and babies as early as at the time of their birth – known as Early Trauma – which can then be stored in their memories.

What Are the Principles Linked to Trauma Informed Care?

There are many dos and don’ts when it comes to trauma informed care, which training providers such as www.tidaltraining.co.uk/mental-health-training-courses/trauma-informed-practice-training can advise on. The best way to foster trust and help empower a patient, encourage them to be autonomous and shift their mindset is to build a relationship of trust before acknowledging their trauma in a careful and considered way. Cultural awareness, as well as avoiding unpacking their history, can be vital if you are to enable them to place enough confidence in you to allow you to teach them replacement behaviours and provide them with new tools to support this journey of progression.

Therefore taking the time to research the effects of individual trauma encourages a better initial understanding of the person’s behaviours, triggers and their emotional state in general before setting about treating them in an informed, timely and appropriate manner.