Q&A: Implementing trauma-informed care

Q: What are the best strategies for case managers working with patients who have dealt with past trauma?

A: Trauma-informed care is an approach to providing care in a way that recognizes and understands how past trauma—such as child abuse, domestic violence, or events like natural disasters, car accidents, or crime—may affect a person.

While there is a growing consensus that this type of care is necessary, implementing it may be a challenge. In her HCPro book The Social Determinants of Health: Case Management’s Next Frontier,  Ellen Fink-Samnick, MSW, ACSW, LCSW, CCM, CRP, DBH(s) offers some tips and strategies for helping these high-risk patients:

Viewing the social determinants of health and their associated impact through a trauma-informed lens has powerful implications for all populations exposed to traumatic life circumstances. Robust evidence is driving the development of innovative care perspectives and funding for new program opportunities across health and behavioral health organizations.

A trauma-informed approach can be implemented in any service setting or organization. This doesn't mean sending every staff member to an intensive trauma-focused training. There are easier and more cost-efficient ways to ensure empathy to the human condition.

Infusing a trauma-informed approach to your setting can be simple. Perhaps you strive to be more intentional in how you interact with persons and populations exposed to events in their lives that could impose undue stress (e.g., rape or sexual assault, crime victim, witness to family violence, human trafficking, sudden abandonment by family or friends, exposure to homelessness, food insufficiency). Actively consider how you, your colleagues, and perhaps your staff can set a tone of empathy, acceptance, and nonjudgement in your interactions with clients.

For more on this topic, see November's issue of Case Management Monthly.