What being trauma informed means to me personally as well as our Trust.
As someone who has lived experience of adverse childhood experiences and violent trauma, I can personally appreciate the impact that traumatic experiences can have on your life. I am fortunate enough to have worked through my various traumas in a way that enables me to manage triggers, and focus my lived experience through a lens of enablement. My experiences have shaped my values, and in turn they have helped to shape my ability to empathise with others. These experiences have led me to dedicating my career and time to help other people, and to actively confront social injustice. Being trauma informed isn’t just about understanding, or aligning to good intent. It is about a fundamental underlying value of respect, compassion and understanding the unique experiences that people live through. TIC is not just about interpersonal communication skills. It is about fundamentally questioning the premise upon which we provide care to others – focusing on what they have experienced, and how it impacts their lives, rather than trying to compartmentalise and define what “is wrong” with people. This is the challenge for us at EPUT.
How I feel trauma informed care (TIC) affects our service users and our staff and the importance of creating a trauma informed environment.
Our staff, our policies and procedures, our leadership, the way we engage and support staff, and the way we provide services are all needing scrutiny and transformation toward aligning, as far as we can possibly manage, with these values. TIC is not just about identifying trauma experiences and their triggers; it is about recognising that adverse experiences can have a lasting effect on shaping our experiences – and that is true for staff, service users and their families. It is understanding why some people are able to be resilient, whilst others are vulnerable, and the limits of these. It is about respecting experiences as unique, not making assumptions, and ultimately being able to respond to contextual personal needs rather than defining human experiences as “illness.”
How we are working towards being a trauma informed Trust.
There is an overwhelming desire for change across the board. Staff and service providers generally are doing their jobs because this work aligns with their values, and are trying to find a way to manage the challenges that threaten to overwhelm their ability to do this. Being trauma informed, and adopting changes that support their efforts to do this will end in better care for our patients, and more fulfilled and satisfied health care workers. The Trust has committed to becoming a trauma informed care provider. There is a strategic plan to enable this, and so far the engagement and start to change practices and procedures has been excellent. We are in a process of trying to use a standardised way to identify what we do well, and where the gaps are, so we can assist the many projects and changes around our services to develop into a meaningful transformation. This takes time if done properly, and well. We envisage that we will see fundamental changes over the next couple of years. Positively, our system partners – commissioners, VCSEs and other Trusts – are also keen on making these changes across Essex. The 45+ organisations across the social care, voluntary and charitable and statutory health landscape that constitute the South East Essex Trauma Alliance is evidence of this.