Authors: Suzanne Coyne Superintendent Justin Srivastava Siobhan Collingwood
This book highlights the need for a compassionate approach in professional settings, recognizing trauma’s widespread effects, and supporting both individuals and communities in healing and recovery.
The importance of working with individuals, in a trauma-informed way, is to better to understand the impact of past events on their behaviour. It happens to YOU and to ME and to those in the COMMUNITIES we live and work within. The importance of working with individuals, in a Trauma Informed way, is to better understand the impact of past events on their behaviour.
Introduction
Trauma is recognised as a profound, global, public health burden. The pervasive and harmful impact of traumatic experiences on individuals, families, and communities, and the inadvertent but widespread re-traumatisation of children and adults within existing services and systems, has made it essential to rethink ‘how we do business’.
Although many people who experience trauma will progress in life without any long-term negative impacts, far too many will experience difficulties and traumatic stress reactions. That said, research indicates that with appropriate support, people can overcome traumatic events.
However, many individuals and families have gone – and continue to go – without appropriate support or interventions.
Left unaddressed, trauma can prevent achieving good health and wellbeing. Over the years, a tendency to focus on the presenting symptoms (e.g., violence or substance ‘abuse’), at the expense of addressing underlying issues, has led to huge human and economic costs to society. Now, more than ever, there is an urgent need to tackle the impact of trauma and focus on how public systems can support people to prevent, as well as recover from traumatic events.
Only by working together, across systems and with our communities, will we reduce the complex and interconnected social determinants and inequalities, which drive trauma. Consequently, the LVRN’s Trauma Informed Organisational Development Framework has been designed to cultivate collective, cross-sector learning, to support the ongoing development of Trauma Informed services.
