The past two years have been stressful and challenging for even the most resilient of employees. It’s time to address the impact of trauma on your teams and provide some trauma-informed care (TIC).
What is TIC? According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), it is a “strengths-based service delivery approach “that is grounded in an understanding of and responsiveness to the impact of trauma, that emphasizes physical, psychological, and emotional safety for both providers and survivors, and creates opportunities for survivors to rebuild a sense of control and empowerment.”
It’s important to realize that trauma is very personal. An event that traumatizes one person may not have the same effect on someone else. Generally, however trauma can be caused by a number of things, including:
- Violence
- Sexual assault
- Racism
- Bias
- Harassment
- Economic uncertainty
- Political division
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggest six guiding priniciples for a trauma-informed approach:
- Safety
- Trustworthiness and transparency
- Peer support
- Collaboration and mutuality
- Empowerment, voice, and choice
- Cultural, historical, and gender issues.
At the same time, SAMHSA offers several keys to providing TIC:
- Meeting and communicating with people in a safe, collaborative, and compassionate manner.
- Avoiding practices that retraumatize people.
- Building on people’s strengths and resilience as opposed to their deficits.
Building a trauma-informed culture will take time, and it is important not to force it on employees but to encourage and enable them to share their traumas and seek help as they need it.
