What is Trauma-Informed Care?
Making care accessible to the sensitive
Those who have experienced trauma will know how much it can impact other aspects of life, such as seeking medical help or support when it’s needed.
Fortunately, care professionals understand well how restrictive the effects of trauma can be on certain patients, and that particular elements of care giving might be triggering for trauma victims.
How do care workers approach these types of people? What skills are needed to prevent triggers or further trauma? What training can help professionals practice mindful care?
Join tend now as we take a deep dive into the Trauma-Informed Care, and why it is a powerful tool in the skills and knowledge toolkit.
So, what is Trauma-Informed Care?
Trauma-Informed Care (or TIC) is a specialist approach to care that recognises the widespread impact of trauma on patients.
TIC enables care professionals to identify the signs and symptoms of trauma on the person they’re treating, so they can ensure their environment supports safety, trust, and empowerment.
In the UK care sector, Trauma-Informed Care is increasingly embedded into:
- Adult social care
- Mental health support
- Dementia services
- Learning disability support
- Homelessness and addiction support
- Community wellbeing services
- Primary and acute healthcare settings
Trauma can be caused by:
- Abuse (psychological, sexual, physical, financial)
- Neglect
- Bullying
- Domestic violence
- Childhood trauma (Adverse Childhood Experiences – ACE)
- Bereavement
- War
- Displacement or homelessness
- Long-term stress
- Medical trauma
- Mental health crises
TIC acknowledges that trauma affects the brain, emotions, communication and trust, which requires a sensitive, informed approach to care.
The core principles of Trauma-Informed Care
Across the country, TIC is guided by 6 widely recognised principles:
- Safety – physical and emotional safety for patients receiving and delivering care
- Trustworthiness and transparency – clear communication and predictable behaviour from staff
- Choice – providing options, supporting autonomy and avoiding coercion
- Collaboration – working with individuals, not doing things to them
- Empowerment – recognising a person’s strengths and building confidence, not focusing solely on challenges
- Cultural, historical, and gender sensitivity – understanding how identity and background shape trauma experiences
These principles align closely with the Care Act of 2014, CQC expectations, person-centred care, safeguarding frameworks, and Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion policies.
How does trauma impact people receiving care?
Since trauma affects communication, emotional responses, behaviour, trust, and mental health, people with trauma may come across as defensive and anxious, react strongly to triggers such as sounds, smells, situations and environments, misinterpret tone or behaviours, and experience unusual emotional spikes.
TIC trains care workers to see these behaviours as adaptive survival responses, not so-called ‘difficult behaviours’.
What skills do care workers need to deliver Trauma-Informed Care?
The skills required for effective TIC are very similar to those required for excellence in person-centred care. Skills such as:
- Empathy and emotional intelligence
- Active listening
- Calm, predictable communication
- Creating psychological safety
- Recognising fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses
- Understanding triggers
- Reflective practice
- An understanding of safeguarding frameworks
The components will equip care professionals with everything they need to deliver a high level of Trauma-Informed Care.
How does Trauma-Informed Care help people receive support?
Trauma can build a proverbial wall around a person, making it really hard for them to be vulnerable and let people in. TIC helps trauma victims to be more open and receptive to the care they need.
Trauma-informed Care is essential, because it:
- Reduces distress and fear
- Builds trust towards care professionals
- Improves engagement with essential care services
- Supports recovery
- Increases resilience
- Prevents re-traumatisation
- Creates better long-term outcomes
All these elements contribute to the emotional recovery from trauma, enabling the patient to get the treatment they need for their most immediate challenges.
How does Trauma-Informed Care impact the wider care sector?
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) expects person-centred, sensitive, wellbeing-focussed practice, all of which are aligned TIC. What this does is:
- Meets/exceeds expectations from regulators
- Supports integrated care priorities (ICSs)
- Creates strong mental health, disability and dementia care frameworks
- Enables valuable domiciliary and care home support
- Empowers community health workers and wellbeing practitioners
These elements enhance care services for traumatised individuals, while preventing further trauma in the process, making TIC incredibly important across the care sector as a whole.
Do apprenticeships teach Trauma-Informed Care?
Yes, they do. TIC awareness is embedded in most health and social care apprenticeship standards, such as our Level 3 Lead Adult Care Worker – Mental Health programme.
With apprenticeships now being the number one route for care professionals entering the care sector, it’s imperative that it’s present on an apprentice’s curriculum.
Elements of TIC can be found in apprenticeship components such as:
- Communication skills
- Safeguarding
- Understanding behaviour as communication
- Person-centred care
- Mental health awareness
- Reflective practice and supervision
- Working multi-disciplinary teams
This ensures that TIC becomes second nature to apprentices, both while they’re learning, and beyond.
Why tend is a great choice of Trauma-Informed Care training provider
Care employers choose tend time and again for their sector-specific expertise, and specialist care training programmes that integrate trauma-informed practices across:
- Adult social care
- Healthcare support
- Community Health and wellbeing
- Care leadership programmes
The tend Development Coaches delivering programmes in these categories have frontline sector experience. They understand trauma’s very-real impact, and make sure they coach learners through:
- Sensitive communications
- Managing difficult behaviours
- Supporting emotional resilience
- Safe, ethical, and professional practice
This approach also promotes holistic, person-centred training, with an emphasis on essential TIC knowledge and skills, such as emotional intelligence, dignity, and empowerment.
These are the reasons why employers with tend-trained professionals on their teams are:
- Calm, confident, and empathetic
- Understanding of behavioural triggers
- Active in preventing conflict and escalation
- Instrumental in improving the care service experience
In addition, tend provides extensive support to employers upskilling their teams, such as free recruitment services, funding applications, tailored training pathways, and more.
Final Thoughts
Trauma-informed care (TIC) is a valuable practice used by care workers to detect when additional sensitivity and adjustments are needed to further support patients who are victims of trauma. It empowers employees to build trust with patients who might find it more difficult being receptive to care and treatment.
Apprenticeships and qualifications offered by tend reinforce these practices, ensuring that TIC becomes second nature to those who complete our programmes.
Wellness is dependent on both the body and the mind being at ease. TIC ensures that both are possible for those who might otherwise be unreceptive to care due to trauma. Together, we can help break down the barriers trauma creates, and make sure people get the help they need for maximum recovery outcomes.
Ready to explore programmes that embed Trauma-Informed Care? Reach out to our team today. Call 01753 596 004 or hit the button below.
