Question
What is trauma-informed care?
Answer
We have to make sure that we understand and respect people's trauma, especially when we are working with youth.
Trauma-informed care is defined as a first-rate treatment protocol for serious assault and violence to build resiliency and prevent future victimization and violence. To repeat that in different words, it is a treatment protocol for helping individuals process their trauma to become resilient and to prevent being victimized in the future. It is not in any way to take away the trauma.
Trauma-informed care allows the individual to be able to have a narrative about the trauma, an ability to process the trauma in a safe way, and involves three stages of treatment.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the webinar, Child Abuse/Neglect: Evidence-Based Treatment, presented by April Dirks, PhD, MSW, LISW.
