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Trauma-informed approaches emerged partly in response to research demonstrating that trauma is widespread across society, that it is highly correlated with mental health and that this is a costly public health issue. This article, authored by trauma survivors and service providers, describes trauma-informed approaches to mental healthcare, why they are needed and how barriers can be overcome so that they can be implemented as an organisational change process.
Trauma-informed mental healthcare offers opportunities to improve service users' experiences, improve working environments for staff, increase job satisfaction and reduce stress levels by improving the relationships between staff and patients through greater understanding, respect and trust. Gain an understanding of what trauma-informed approaches are and why they have emerged, including the potential for re traumatisation in the mental health system. This article presents independent research partially funded by the NIHR.
Research has consistently found that people using mental health services have experienced high rates of trauma in childhood or adulthood e. Kessler and that these rates are higher than in the general population e. Mauritz It has also been found that people using mental health services are more likely to have experienced violence or trauma in the previous year than the general population e. Khalifeh A major retrospective study of over 17 predominantly White middle-class Americans found not only that childhood trauma is prevalent, but also that it influences physical, mental and emotional health as adults and can shorten life expectancy e.
Felitti Traumatic effects are cumulative: the more traumatic experiences a person is exposed to, the greater the impact on mental and physical health e. Shevlin Furthermore, having a trauma history is associated with poorer outcomes for survivors, including a greater likelihood of attempting suicide, of self-harming, longer and more frequent hospital admissions and higher levels of prescribed medication e. Read ; Mauritz There is also growing evidence that childhood trauma shapes our neurobiology.
