There are several principles in literature that are proposed to guide the implementation of trauma-informed care. Yatchmenoff, Sundborg, and Davis (2017) investigated these principles further and concluded that all of these principles fall into three domains: safety, empowerment, and self-worth. Many of these trauma-informed principles are areas that are already of high importance to people working in health and social care services.

Safety

This one is obvious but some things can be too obvious and we can miss them, we can spend so much time looking at the details that we forget about the bigger picture. We don’t see the forest because the trees are in the way. Safety very much represents protecting people from any kind of harm. After all, people want to be safe from things that can harm them, be that physical or psychological. Our health and social services are there to help people, not to harm them. However, this doesn’t always go to plan. People that access health and social care services may present to services because of difficult experiences that affect them in the present but also complex difficulties that affected them in the past. Trauma-informed care emphasises harm minimisation and the avoidance of retraumatisation. This also extends to an awareness of iatrogenic harm – which can be devastating for service users.

Empowerment

Our stories as people include our histories, preferences, and characteristics. People like to be in control of writing their own stories and also who they share their stories with. Services can hold a substantial amount of power over the people they help because services may have access to service user’s stories. Services also often dictate service user’s journeys through the service and this can be terrifying for vulnerable people. When control is a shared process and choices are many, service users are empowered in their healing journey.

Self-Worth

People with lived experience of trauma often feel as though they don’t deserve help or support and this could be due to a number of reasons. Perhaps they didn’t receive help in the past or didn’t feel listened to. It takes a lot of courage to reach out for help and if attempts aren’t well received, service users can be missed by services. Services should treat everyone with respect and use destigmatising language to ensure people feel as though they belong there.

These are a few principles and there are many others. What do you think is a principle of trauma-informed care?