Centres on the person
“A trauma informed system centres on the person, not the process. The system listens and responds to the people living through it”
Page under construction
This page gives an outline…
- About trauma
- About trauma informed practices
- The importance of lived experience
- Building links to people with lived experience
- The benefits
- Your reflections & feedback
About trauma
Useful articles, courses, sessions: Ask for input from Core Group
Here are four links from agencies across the world which give a quick insight into trauma and how we respond to it.
- An animation starting from the point of view of two police officers, who cannot understand why a person they are trying to help cannot remember anything of the experience they have had… 8.45 minutes
2. An animation about how adverse childhood experiences can affect our brins, our bodies and our behaviour… just over 6 minutes
3. A talk by Professor Bessel van de Kolk who was involved in early investigation and understanding of trauma… just over 8 minutes
4. A series of slides describing the four different survival states, devised for Beacon House by H Townsend, titled “What survival looks like at home“.
About trauma informed approaches
Add a sentence on what is a Trauma Informed approach
Here is an animation about Trauma informed practice for the workforce, presented by NHS Scotland, including a very useful outline of how agencies working together helps build a trauma informed approach… 8.41 minutes
Some standards & definitions
- The NHS and UK six tenets of being trauma informed (quick summary)
- The Scottish psychological trauma training plan., published by NHS Education for Scotland and Scottish Government and their National Trauma Training Programme. Also the Scottish Trauma Informed Leaders Training, all published in in 2019.
- An article from 2019 about the role of compassion in Social Work practice, reviewing the book by Denise Tanner called ‘The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name’ which you can read about in the British Journal of Social Work.
- A whole series of documents devised by “Trauma Informed Oregon”. First, a roadmap to trauma informed care. then some Standards of Practice for Trauma Informed Care including definitions and additional resources
Our ‘ways of being’
At an early workshop with partners, we identified nine ways of being, which we felt described how it felt to be trauma informed These are:
- Be adaptable
- Be appreciative
- Be aspirational
- Be bold
- Be flexible
- Be open and reflective
- Be open to growth
- Be persistent
- Be welcoming
Our vision of a trauma informed system
…is outlined on the “moves together” page.
- People may work in trauma informed ways, and take a trauma informed approach to their customers and their workmates.
- Organisations may be trauma informed, having a trauma informed policy and training programmes so staff work in a trauma informed way, and are supported by managers so as to avoid or deal with any trauma they encounter.
- But a third, perhaps less well known area, is looking at how organisations deal with each other. How do staff members in one service (e.g. health) work with people in housing, or working in social care, or working with voluntary agencies? How organisations deal with each other and how they help the pee they support, to “find their way around” is also vital.
- Many people facing multiple disadvantage, or any trauma, will feel less robust than usual, and may well disengage or loose their sense of control or energy, if they feel “passed around”. So it’s up to the partners to work out how to do better, how to keep the person at the centre – not the policies or the procedures or the computer system’s needs! This is why we have devised what we see as the three key features of a trauma informed SYSTEM:
- Centres on the person: focusses on the person, not the process. We listen & respond to the people living through it.
- Adjusts to conditions: learning, adapting and reflecting together. We are open to improvement through questions and challenge.
- Moves together: Aim to align across the system. We work on how to work together, keeping the person at the centre.
Importance of lived experience
The importance of taking a trauma informed approach for everyone: examples from staff, volunteers & service users.
You can find a series of case studies which include people who faced multiple disadvantage and often related trauma here.
Other testimonials, case studies & journey maps to be added, hopefully videos
Building links to people with lived experience
Sentence here on how we make lived experience central when we are working on being trauma informed
Links to lived experience and co-production groups – e.g. Changing Futures related:
- Cambridge co-production group, contact xxx
- Peterborough co-production group, contact xxx
- East Cambridgeshire co-production group, contact xxx
- Fenland co-production group, contact xxx
- Finding Help Forum
- All agencies to be invited to add here
- Idea of a mapping of the various forums with contact info?
Benefits
Benefits for all people – including staff, volunteers, organizations and whole system, but with the focus and orientation entirely around the individual.
Consultants at a firm called Cordis-Bright have been guiding our thoughts on how best to measure the value of this work, and related areas. You can find their report on this page.
Encouraging reflection and feedback
Some words here on reflection and feedback (reflect group, others?)
- Importance of taking a trauma informed approach for everyone: examples from staff, volunteers & service users
- You can find a series of case studies which include people who faced multiple disadvantage and (often) related trauma, here.
- Other testimonials, case studies & journey maps to be added
- Add scrolling quotes here?