Speakers: Kath Thorburn and Michelle Everett (NSW Insitute of Psychiatry)
(Trailer shown for Healing Neen)
We cannot offer recovery-oriented services without understanding the profound impacts of trauma. Trauma informed approaches are good for workers as well as consumers and carers (eg. addressing vicarious trauma). You can’t have one without the other, but you can change services by approaching through either “lens.”
What environments, practices and workplace cultures are needed?
- Vision
- Leadership
- Partnership (with consumers & stakeholders)
What do workers need to learn?
Threshold concepts – The critical issues that need to be taught. Things that lead us to think about things in new ways. High-value concepts. Can and should leave workers with more questions about the issues.
For recovery-oriented practice these are:
- Lived experience knowledge – legitimate
- It and me – impact of illness focused interactions & services on sense of self
- Us an them – power & healing
- Clinician’s illusion – “my knowledge is biased”
- Personal effort – “workers can’t do recovery”
- Recovery – process and outcome
For trauma-informed care:
- Trauma has profound psychological, biological and social impacts
- The past is in the present – “We carry our past in our bones” (Wells)
- The brain is altered by trauma – but brains (and people) can change
What has current research found?
- Recovery knowledge may increase without a corresponding change in recovery attitude
- Association between knowledge of recovery concepts & recovery-oriented practices
- Sharing of lived experience knowledge has a particular impact on attitude shifts
- Understanding impact of trauma increased worker empathy comfort in working with anger and/or aggression
There needs to be substantial groundwork on assessing and changing attitudes in service staff before charging into intensive workshops on recovery-oriented and trauma-informed practice.
Questions
Q1: Generational trauma is a major issue with the Aboriginal people of this country. How can this be managed?
It comes up & is discussed in the NSW IOP units.
Q2: Some people do not want to be identified by their trauma. Positive psychology emphasises this.
This is actually an element of trauma-informed care. Inadvertedly services can re-inforce this attitude but that’s not what trauma-informed care intends to do. Being informed does not mean we have to contually focus on it, but the knowledge helps (e.g. knowing an abused person’s triggers).
Q3: Are you finding workers struggling with the different concepts of recovery and recovery-oriented practice?
We’ve noticed a big shift towards recovery-oriented practice and services. This has also meant a shift in people’s knwoledge.
Q4: Other sectors dealing with people with mental illness do not have any of this kind of knowledge or training. How can this be made broader as a training tool?
We keep chipping away at the broader community. There are many conversations being had on a day-to-day level with people who talk to people who talk to people.
