Trauma-Informed Organization - Avoiding Burnout
Posted on June 11, 2023
Continue readingPrevention and Education > Resources > Trauma-Informed
In 2021, Children’s Home Society began a journey of transformation. Leadership saw that to achieve our mission of preventing, treating and healing trauma, we would need to become a trauma-informed organization.
A trauma-informed approach is defined by The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) as:
“…a program, organization, or system that realizes the widespread impact of trauma and understands potential paths for recovery; recognizes the signs and symptoms of trauma in clients, families, staff, and others involved with the system; and responds by fully integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices, and seeks to actively resist re-traumatization.”
An employee-led work group came together to help facilitate the journey. All employees are trained in the topic, a multi-stage internal awareness campaign was implemented, staff-created articles and videos are distributed and work group members are available for support.
Children’s Home Society also offers training to other groups on becoming trauma-informed.
The TIO Committee was tasked with determining what a trauma informed organization would look like and how it would be achieved. We eventually identified three themes:
Trauma and its results are ever-changing and enormously complex. Distinctions between one’s own and others’ trauma triggers and responses can be difficult to discern. The more the committee looked at this, the more urgent our work became.
To learn more about the TIO Committee, contact Angie Smith at angela.smith@chssd.org or 605-965-3132 or Tifanie Petro at Tifanie.petro@chssd.org or 605-484-2620, or any committee member:
Fundamental to a basic understanding of our own trauma is knowing about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). These situations or events harm children’s developing brains and lead to the adult onset of chronic diseases, depression and other mental illness, violence and being a victim of violence, as well as financial and social problems.
Groundbreaking research, the CDC-Kaiser Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, measured 10 ACEs, which include:
— Physical, sexual and verbal abuse
— Physical and emotional neglect
— A family member who is:
— Witnessing a mother or step-mother being abused.
— Losing a parent to separation, divorce or other reason.
Subsequent to the ACE Study, other ACE surveys have expanded the types of ACEs to include racism, gender discrimination, witnessing a sibling being abused, witnessing violence outside the home, witnessing a father being abused by a mother, being bullied by a peer or adult, involvement with the foster care system, living in a war zone, living in an unsafe neighborhood, losing a family member to deportation, etc.
ACEs are common. At least two-thirds of adults (64%) have at least one. And if you have one there’s an 87% chance that you have two or more.
Like most adults with ACEs, CHS employees with ACEs bring their past to work with them every day. Unlike most adults, however, CHS employees may be more aware of their ACEs due to working with our clients, most of whom have suffered trauma.
Vicarious/Secondary Trauma and Compassion Fatigue is a process through which one’s own experience becomes transformed through engagement with another individual’s trauma.
That is, trauma may not only impact the individual who experienced it. It can also impact those around them, including you as the staff member. Client trauma can also trigger feelings around an employee’s own trauma.
Signs of Compassion Fatigue:
Risk Factors for Compassion Fatigue:
Even in an organization that is providing trauma-informed practices with those we serve, employees can still experience reactive or psychologically unsafe practices within the workplace. How can we ensure that we have workplaces that are supportive, encourage growth and help staff succeed?
For trauma-informed workplace wellness to be effective, we need to create a network of community support that holds teams together while allowing for individuality, authenticity, and community-building. Executive Director of SAFE of Columbia County and Author Ellyn Bell has identified seven trauma-informed workplace wellness practices:
When we allow ourselves and others to show vulnerability, we create a sense of personal safety that allows for stronger workplace teamwork and performance.
When we engage honestly, we state the facts and work through the details.
Integrity requires holding ourselves to a standard of self-honesty, putting judgments aside and working from a place of presence and compassion. This allows others to trust that their interactions with us are sincere and authentic, and minimizes hidden agendas, power games and meanness in general.
It’s not easy to see from another’s point of view, but in doing so we open new doors to our hearts and minds. Practicing empathy in the workplace requires that we challenge our own fiercely held beliefs and our sense of fragility.
Put everything else aside when someone from your team is speaking with you. Give them your full attention and prevent your own personal narrative from getting in the way of hearing what they’re saying. Active listening will help your team understand one another better.
Opportunities to grow together as a team in a safe, supportive environment are fantastic ways to increase workplace happiness.
If you can laugh with your team, have fun and be a little silly from time to time, you can go miles toward creating an environment where people can blossom.
About 25% of CHS employees do not provide direct care to clients. Trauma-informed principles are equally important for non-direct care staff to understand. A workplace can become a trauma-informed organization only if all employees are on the same page.
Non-direct care staff may have ACEs and traumatic experiences in their backgrounds. They also can be impacted by trauma in the workplace. Understanding these factors can be enormously helpful to everyone in coping with stress, mental health and relationships.
As an example, let’s say a non-direct care employee named Liz reports to another non-direct care employee named Roz. Over the weekend, Liz’s longtime pet passed away. On Monday, Liz seems a little cranky to her co-workers. Towards the end of the day, Roz enters Liz’s office to give her a huge assignment with a tight deadline.
Liz feels overwhelmed and snaps at Roz. This triggers Roz, who didn’t sleep well the previous night, and has troublesome health issues. Both feel badly following the interaction.
What might be a trauma-informed approach to this situation?
When we can manage our own reactions or emotions about a situation, we are better prepared to help others navigate their journey as well. At the organizational level this can mean ensuring that we are showing up to meetings regulated and ready for conversation, deciding not to send that gossipy email to our coworker, or even taking the time to help hold others accountable when we see physically or emotionally unsafe situations happening in the office.
If we wish to share a common language and understanding, it helps to ensure we are breaking cycles of re-traumatization instead of contributing to them.
Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D. https://besselvanderkolk.net/index.html or http://www.childtrauma.org Book: The Body Keeps the Score
Beyond Consequences; Heather Forbes www.beyondconsequences.com Books: Beyond Consequences Vol 1 & 2, Dare to Love, Help for Billy
Brene Brown https://brenebrown.com/ Books: Dare to Lead, Daring Greatly, The Gifts of Imperfection, Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connections
Dr. Bruce Perry http://childtrauma.org/ and www.childtraumaacademy.com Books: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, What Happened to you?, Born for Love
Centers for Disease Control https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/childabuseandneglect/acestudy/index.html
Complete ACEs Research- https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/childabuseandneglect/acestudy/about.html
Dan Siegel, www.drdansiegel.com; www.mindsightinstitute.com Books: The Whole-Brain Child, No-Drama Discipline, The Developing Mind, Mindsight, Parenting From the Inside Out, Brainstorm, Aware
Jim Sporleder & Heather T Forbes, Beyond Consequences Institute http://www.beyondconsequences.com/the-trauma-informed-school Book: The Trauma- Informed School -- A Step-by-Step Implementation Guide for Administrators and School Personnel
Juli Alvarado-Alvarado Consulting and Treatment Group www.alvaradoconsultinggroup.com Book: The Quest for Peace in a Broken World; Emotional Regulatory Healing ERH
Karen Reivich & Andrew Shatte, Book: The Resilience Factor: 7 Keys to Finding Your Inner Strength and Overcoming Life’s Hurdles
Karyn Purvis; TCU Institute for Child Development http://www.child.tcu.edu Book: The Connected Child and numerous videos on TBRI (Trust Based Relational Intervention)
Marc Brackett; Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence https://www.ycei.org/ Books: Permission to Feel: The Power of Emotional Intelligence to Achieve Well-Being and Success; Emotional Literacy in the Middle School and TedTalk: https://youtu.be/t8UhRBwmvd4
Nadine Burke Harris, Center for Youth Wellness https://centerforyouthwellness.org/ Book: The Deepest Well Ted Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/nadine_burke_harris_how_childhood_trauma_affects_health_across_a_lifetime?language=en
Peter Levine, www.traumahealing.org Books: Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma: the Innate Capacity to Transform Overwhelming Experiences. Trauma and Memory: Brain and Body in a Search for the Living Past: A Practical Guide for Understanding and Working with Traumatic Memory
Post Institute; Bryan Post www.postinstitute.com Free resources online Books: The Great Behavior Breakdown, From Fear to Love: Parenting Difficult Adopted Children, How to Heal the Attachment Challenged Angry and Defiant Child
Dr. Ruby Gibson, https://freedomlodge.org Books: Our Bodies As Record Keepers. My Body My Earth: Somatic Archaeology Meditations. “Brain Spotting” https://brainspotting.com
Resma Menakem. Book: My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts and Bodies
• ACEs Connection (www.acesconnection.com)
• ACEs Too High – ACES 101 https://acestoohigh.com/aces-101/
• ACE Interface: The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study www.aceinterface.com
• American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress www.aaets.org
• Building Adult Capabilities: https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/building-adult-capabilities-to-improve-child-outcomes-a-theory-of-change/
• Building Resilience: Healthy Children https://www.healthychildren.org/English/healthy-living/emotional-wellness/Building-Resilience/Pages/default.aspx.
• Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress www.chop.edu/professionals/pediatric-traumatic-stress
• Child Trends www.childtrends.org/publications/prevalence-adverse-childhood-experiences-nationally-state-race-ethnicity
• Compassion Resilience Toolkit https://compassionresiliencetoolkit.org/
• Community Resilience Initiative https://criresilient.org/
• Dr. Ruby Gibson on Somatic Archaeology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DpXMwwpnLE
• Echohawk Lefthand Resilience https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JiXIG8j9mA
• Epigenetics Primer Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvB0q3mg4sQ
• Flipping Your Lid - Hand Model of the Brain – https:www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD-IfP1FBFk
• Helping Foster and Adoptive Families Cope with Trauma - A Guide for Pediatricians http://www.aap.org/en-us/advocacy-and-policy/aap-health-initiatives/healthy-foster-care-america/Documents/Guide.pdf
• How Brains are Built: The Core Story of Brain Development. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmVWOe1ky8s
• How Can Trauma Affect My Young Child?
http://www.cehd.umn.edu/CEED/publications/questionsaboutkids/traumaenglish.pdf
• International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies www.istss.org
• Kids Mental Health Info www.kidsmentalhealthinfo.com/child-trauma.php
• National Center for Children Exposed to Violence www.nccev.org
• National Child Traumatic Stress Network www.nctsn.org
• National Child Traumatic Stress Network Learning Center - for Child and Adolescent Trauma www.nctsn.org/login/index.php
• National Trauma Consortium www.nationaltraumaconsortium.org
• Parenting After Trauma: Understanding Your Child's Needs - A Guide for Foster and Adoptive Parents www.aap.org/en-us/advocacy-and-policy/aap-health-initiatives/healthy-foster-care-america/Documents/FamilyHandout.pdf
• Positive Supports https://www.search-institute.org/our-research/development-assets/developmental-assets-framework/
• Refrigerator Sheet: The Whole Brain Child by Daniel Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson. https://www.drdansiegel.com/pdf/Refrigerator%20Sheet--WBC.pdf
• SAMHSA National Center for Trauma-Informed Care www.samhsa.gov/nctic/
• Six Core Strengths for Healthy Child Development: An Overview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skaYWKC6iD4
• Stress Health https://www.stresshealth.org/
• The Trauma Informed Care Project www.traumainformedcareproject.org
• Through Our Eyes: Children, Violence, and Trauma Video http://www.ovc.gov/pubs/ThroughOurEyes/index.html
• US Department of Health & Human Services (https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/preventing/preventionmonth/resources/ace/)
ACEs Connection – SD - https://www.acesconnection.com/g/south-dakota-aces-connection
Facebook - Center for the Prevention of Child Maltreatment – https://www.facebook.com/SDCPCM/
Facebook – South Dakota ACEs and Resiliency Connections https://www.facebook.com/groups/SDACES/
Critical to safe and supportive crisis intervention
7 Trauma-Informed Workplace Wellness Practices to Strengthen Your Team
Trauma-Informed Care - Bing video
Trauma and the Brain - Bing video
https://beaconhouse.org.uk/resources/
https://www.nctsn.org/trauma-informed-care/secondary-traumatic-stress/introduction
https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/management/workforce/workforcewellbeing/burnout/secondary/
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