Thursday: Adopting a Trauma Informed approach to Safeguarding Adults

Trauma-informed practice encourages practitioners that may be supporting people within their role, to consider how trauma exposure can impact an individual’s ability to function and achieve mental, physical, social, emotional or spiritual wellbeing. Trauma-informed practice encourages us to think about what we need to know to be able to respond to people affected by trauma, understanding the person and what is important to them.

Evidence of the full impact of trauma has been emerging now for several decades, establishing beyond doubt that its effects can be wide-ranging, substantial, long-lasting and costly. Resulting from harmful experiences such as violence, neglect, war and abuse, trauma has no boundaries with regard to age, gender, socio-economic status or ethnicity, and represents an almost universal experience across the countries of the world.

We are encouraging organisations to think about how a trauma-informed approach could be beneficial for staff, volunteers and the people they are supporting. There are practical tools to support organisations and practitioners to adopt a trauma-informed approach available in the download feature on the side of this page.