Trauma Informed Practice – Snap Guide
As part of the Serious Violence Strategy, the MK Together Partnership which includes SaferMK, met with a range of practitioners and conducted an appreciative enquiry event for professionals in universal, targeted and specialist services to ascertain levels of trauma aware/informed practice across the children and young people’s workforce.
Based on the feedback received from partners, this resource has been developed to support staff working with children and young people within the health, social, education and voluntary sector to signpost to resources appropriate for the type of role and level of concern.
What is trauma informed practice?
Trauma-informed approaches have become increasingly cited in policy and adopted in practice as a means for reducing the negative impact of trauma experiences and supporting mental and physical health outcomes. This builds on evidence developed over several decades.
There has been a lack of consensus within the health and social care sector on how trauma-informed practice is defined, what its key principles are and how it can be built into services and systems. The ‘working definition of trauma informed practice’ (November 2022) document seeks to address this gap by providing a working definition of trauma-informed practice for practitioners working in the health and care sector. The working definition presented in this document reflects the original internationally recognised definition developed by the United States Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The evidence base exploring the use of trauma-informed practice in different settings and sectors is still being developed. This working definition will be kept under review and updated where appropriate to reflect new evidence. Working definition of trauma-informed practice - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Developing an understanding of trauma and adversity
This Addressing Childhood Adversity & Trauma resource provides a very useful overview of issues related to trauma and adversity. It includes a checklist that provides a framework for team discussions and advice on how trauma informed your practice is on a regular basis.
The UK Trauma Council (UKTC) is a group of leading experts, drawn from a variety of disciples across all four nations of the UK. They are the first UK-wide platform bringing together expertise in research, practice, policy and lived experience in the field of childhood trauma. The UKTC is hosted and supported by Anna Freud.
The Trauma-Informed-Wales-Framework also provides the context in which care and support are provided and enables a holistic approach to understanding how best to help people affected by trauma. The diagram included provides a useful summary of language that is trauma informed.
All Our Health is a resource which helps health professionals provide better access to health and care and promote wellbeing as part of their everyday practice. The information below will help front line health and care staff use their trusted relationships with patients, families and communities to address the impact of vulnerabilities. We recognise that health and care staff as individuals may also experience similar issues in their personal lives. This guide also recommends important actions that managers and staff holding strategic roles can take.All Our Health also includes training for professionals All Our Health: Vulnerabilities and trauma-informed practice.
Developing a more in-depth understanding
Links to Young Minds follow up resources and e book. Addressing adversity and trauma (young minds) Professional Resources addressing adversity and trauma young minds. Addressing Adversity web book (youngminds.org.uk)
Wales resources
ABS Insight 4 - Trauma Informed Practice - FINAL lo-res.pdf (ncb.org.uk)
Home - ACE Hub Wales Resources for professionals - ACE Hub Wales
UK Trauma Council – free resources for training and development
Childhood Trauma and the Brain - UKTC (uktraumacouncil.org) Childhood trauma, the brain and the social world - UKTC (uktraumacouncil.org) Childhood Trauma, War, Migration and Asylum - UK Trauma Council
Trauma informed practice toolkit – Scotland
Provides a detailed framework for a whole systems response to improving trauma-informed practice. This includes implementation across 10 different domains. Trauma-informed practice toolkit: Scottish Government Supporting documents - Trauma-informed practice: toolkit - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Trauma informed Wales
Framework and infographic. This may be useful to assess your workplace against Trauma-Informed-Wales-Framework.