Trauma-Aware Port Phillip organisations

How organisations can become trauma-aware by supporting staff and service users, improving wellbeing, creating safe spaces, and working together to build respectful and caring services.

The responsibility of creating a Trauma-Aware Port Phillip involves everyone in our community, including our organisations.  

As organisations, becoming trauma-aware means, we are beginning to understand the prevalence of trauma among people who access our services as well as our staff. We are beginning to recognise the possible impacts of trauma on how our staff work and how our service users engage with our services. We are learning the signs of triggering, re-traumatization and shame. And we are beginning to recognise the part our organisational spaces, policies and procedures play in triggering, re-traumatizing and shaming.  

Becoming trauma-informed as an organisation means we will embed this knowledge into our mission, practices and all areas of our organisation. This can be a huge process for some organisations. Particularly for organisations with long legacies of harmful policies, this work can seem impossible. Be mindful of this and recognise what you can do within your position, being compassionate to yourself will help sustain your learning and efforts toward becoming trauma-informed.  

The process of becoming trauma-informed can be broken into four stages.

The 4 Rs of trauma-informed organisations

Trauma-informed organisations will:

  • Ensure individuals affected by trauma are not treated simply as victims. 
  • Offer individualized, flexible and person-centred plans and approaches. 
  • Avoid cultures of control and rigid inputs and outcomes. 
  • Recognize that coercive and involuntary interventions can be triggering, re-traumatising, and traumatising.  
  • Understand the impacts of trauma can create barriers to accessing services. 
  • Provide staff the education and support necessary to recognise and respond to the impacts of trauma. 
  • Provide staff training and supervision in assessment, care and treatment of people who have experienced trauma in line with that staff members work responsibilities. 
  • Recognise that one size does not fit all. 
  • Maximise involvement of people regarding their care, goals, and support. 
  • Strive to offer autonomy and transparency.  
  • Invite and value lived and living experience collaboration and perspectives. 
  • Not pry about the details of someone's experiences to be empathetic and priorities mental and physical safety.  
  • Understand that you might be someone’s trigger but that it is not personal. Being a man, being white, being a settler, smelling a certain way or dressing a certain way could remind someone of a potentially traumatic event. This is not a reflection of your character but a response to a story that has taught someone that specific traits mean someone is unsafe. 

Why trauma-informed approaches are important

GroupOutcomes
Service usersReduction in trauma symptoms, behavioural issues and crisis; improved engagement; improved retention in programs/services.
Service users and providersImproved overall mental health and wellbeing; mutual respect; an enhanced sense of safety.
Service providersReduction in fatigue and burnout related to secondary trauma; reduction in injuries; improved morale; lower staff turnover; greater collaboration within and across systems.   

Within an organisation

Vertical trauma-informed approaches

For trauma-informed approaches to be effective, they must be enacted vertically and horizontally. This means within an origination, vertically, as well as across organisational referral networks, horizontally.  

To become trauma-aware, every aspect within an organization needs to be examined. This includes policies, structures, systems and procedures; governance, management and leadership; treatment and education of staff; the physical environment; and involvement of people with lived and living experience.

Organisational domains

Across Organisations

Horizontal trauma-informed approaches

A trauma-aware organisation understands their place within a referral network, the role of other service providers within their network, and how service users experience that network.   

A trauma-informed organisation encourages and welcomes collaboration across their network who are committed to trauma-informed approaches. This involves an understanding of cultural safety, shame sensitivity, and systemic causes of trauma experienced by vulnerable communities.  

Having a collaborative referral network means staff, and their organisations, know their competencies, strengths and roles. They know what situations are beyond their means and know where and how to refer service users when needed. This ensures front line staff do not take on responsibilities beyond their skillset, capabilities or job description, which would put them and service users at risk. It also means that service users are safely and respectfully referred to a suitable system of care so that they may access the support they need.  

Creating collaborative, coordinated and trauma-informed referral networks means service users can experience a continuity of care that takes their whole health into consideration. This is because different professional perspectives draw attention to different aspects of the service user's health and the extent to which trauma is impacting someone. This not only improves service user engagement, but it also mitigates risk for front line workers. 

References