Trauma Informed Case

Question: Write about theTrauma Informed Case. Answer: Introduction Trauma as Bath,H., (2008), puts it refers to any life experience that may have resulted in physical, emotional or psychological pain. This can occur at any stage of human life as Kramer Tempel (2013) from infancy to adulthood. Forms of trauma vary but some examples such as rape, domestic violence, car accidents, loss of a loved one are quite common in our society. However most people prefer to keep their experiences in trauma as a secret, not letting anyone know lest they be judged by the society. There has been an increased interest in in trauma studies as a result of recent research studies that have shown a clear association between traumatic experiences and health, especially mental health. Trauma influences the persons possibility to access health care, diagnosis, adherence to medication and ultimately healing. Since majority of the population have experienced trauma, more than even one time for some of them, this field can be used to better the treatment process we currently have. Behavioral health problems are strongly related to trauma and thus in this essay we are going to look at how trauma informed care can be used to improve service deliver to customers suffering from behavioral and mental health problems. This approach is based on making decisions on how to help the patient putting into consideration the trauma history of the patient. This method has better results than the previous methods. How Trauma Informed Care can Guide Provision of Mental Health Care Trauma informed care can guide provision of mental health care both at policy level and for the consumers. At a policy level, this can be achieved by first having a trauma oriented work force. According to Hoge et al (2007), In order for the trauma informed care to take place, the health workers in hospitals and nursing homes offering this care should have adequate knowledge on how to carry out the process. This is achieved by hiring health workers that have wide, relevant and up to date information on trauma informed care. The workers in place should also be trained on trauma care regularly to ensure their knowledge is always updated. The health institutions should also ensure that the workers have a conducive environment for working. Working in health institutions can be stressful a factor that can easily lead to underperformance of the workers. The health provides should also be well remunerated for their services. Governments should also come up with policies that will promote research as Dollard, N. Hummer, V., (2012) pointed out so as to improve on the knowledge already in place. It is only through research that new information can be acquired resulting in advancement and improvement of trauma informed care practice. As a result the patients would receive better treatment which would result in better results. For the consumers, trauma informed care can provide vital information, Dollard, N. Hummer, V.,( 2012), that would be useful for mental treatment for example in alcohol and drug rehabilitation facilities. This is because in this method of treatment, the health worker has more information that will direct him or her to formulating the correct treatment plan. In this case for example according to Covington, S.S., (2008) , the health worker will not only be interested in treating the addiction part of their patient but they will dwell into the reasons as to why the individual began drug abuse. The health worker will also look into the reasons or factors that stimulate their patient to start drug abuse. With this information, proper treatment is offered to the patient and thus they recover faster. Trauma informed care enables the health provider make the right diagnosis even in cases where the patient symptoms suggest otherwise. For example, a soldier may present to a health worker with symptoms such as insomnia, and nightmares. If the health worker has no prior history of the patient, he or she may go ahead to prescribe sedatives for the patient. But if the health worker has prior information that the patient is a soldier, who has been in several wars, they will know that this is a case of post-traumatic stress disorder and not merely, insomnia. As a result, the patient will receive better mental care than if he hadnt made the worker aware of his history. In psychiatric centers where patients with mental disorders such as schizophrenia are admitted and nursed, trauma informed care helps a great deal in management of the patients. For example in our case of schizophrenia, the patient will present with an array of behavioral disorders such as delusions, hallucinations disorganized thinking and abnormal and disorganized speech. The health worker at the facility will manage this symptoms at first. But that will not be all, the health worker will also find out the root cause of the schizophrenia based on the past history of the patient. Probably something traumatic happened during the patients childhood and the patient had no one to counsel them and as a result, he fell into depression and schizophrenia resulted. With such knowledge the health worker will manage their patient well because they have the necessary information and eventually help the patient come to terms with their past and the healing process is complete. Trauma informed care is guided by a set of principles or fundamentals that according to Ko SJ Lyne CM (2008) include: understanding trauma and its impact, promoting safety of the consumer as well as a safe environment, supporting the consumer control, his or her choices, and autonomy, ensuring cultural competence and knowing that recovery is possible among others. These are the factors that guide health workers in ensuring that the trauma informed care to mental health patients is done efficiently and correctly. How Principles of Trauma Informed Care Relate to my Approach in Supporting Consumers with Mental Health The first principle about understanding trauma and its impact is very important. For one to be able administer trauma informed care they must know what type of trauma affected their customer. There are different types of trauma such as complex trauma which is most severe and results from traumatic childhood experiences, post-traumatic stress disorder and cultural safety trauma. It is important for me as a health worker to first identify which type of trauma is causing my patients mental problems because from there I can be able to know how to manage him or her. All these traumas have a different cause and thus a different management strategy. Most trauma victims suffer from insecurity and fear as most of traumatic experiences involve either or both of them. For example victims of rape will experience fear towards any male person, even if they mean no harm. It is therefore hard for the consumers to trust anyone even the health workers at the nursing homes. As Hopper, E.K., Olivet, J., 2010 explain, it is therefore my duty as a health practitioner to restore their confidence and feeling of security even before I can begin the trauma informed care to treat their mental condition. This can be achieved by proving a safe physical environment, and explaining everything to them in detail so as to avoid emotional insecurity. All these is geared towards avoiding re-traumatization something that could worsen things. Once this has been done, it becomes easy to manage the mental health problem the customer is suffering from. Principles of trauma as put by Bath, H., (2008) are also based on supportive consumer control, freedom of choice. This aspect is usually emphasized because trauma patients experience their traumatic events not by choice but as a result of the circumstances. For examples, a kid whose parents died while they were young might have the feeling of helplessness and despair. This is because the events that happened were out of his or her control therefore giving them the impression that they really cant have control over their lives. It is therefore important for me as a health worker to ensure I first restore the sense of control and independence before tackling the mental problem issue. Once the consumer has regained his or her feeling of security, it becomes easier to deal with the issue of mental problem since the root cause of the issue has been resolved. The main aim of trauma informed care, according to Ko Lyne (2008) is recovery of the patient. This is why recovery is among the principles of trauma informed care. Quick and proper recovery can be as a result of the relationships the patient forms. Health workers implementing the trauma informed recovery therefore encourage their consumers to form relationships especially with their family members and close friends. It is through this relationships that patients realize they have people who mind them and hence they better put some effort in their recovery process. This is usually effective in treatment of mental health issues such as drug and substance abuse. Relationship forming is therefore vital to patient recovery and its up to the health worker to guide their patient to form Conclusion From the essay and according to Muskett, C., (2014) we can clearly see that trauma informed care is the best way to go. This is because we are usually not concerned with treatment of the symptoms but rather the root cause of these symptoms. It ensures that the health worker has all the necessary information they require to make the correct diagnosis and thus formulate the best form of management. Trauma informed care also ensures that chances of the mental health condition reoccurring is also minimal as the root cause of the issue has been dealt with. Though this method consumes time and also resources in training of staff, the results are usually worth the cost. It is therefore the way to go for Australia mental health sector. References Bath, H., 2008. The three pillars of trauma-informed care. Reclaiming children and youth, 17(3), p.17. An action plan for behavioral health work force development, Hoge at al 2007, pg 297 Kramer, T.L., Sigel, B.A., Conners-Burrow, N.A., Savary, P.E. and Tempel, A., 2013. A statewide introduction of trauma-informed care in a child welfare system. Children and Youth Services Review, 35(1), pp.19-24. Klain, E.J. and White, A.R., 2013. Implementing trauma-informed practices in child welfare. Retrieved from State Policy Advocacy and Reform Center: www. childwelfaresparc. org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Implementing-Trauma-Informed-Practices. pdf. Dollard, N. and Hummer, V., 2012. Trauma-informed care. Hopper, E.K., Bassuk, E.L. and Olivet, J., 2010. Shelter from the storm: Trauma-informed care in homelessness services settings. The Open Health Services and Policy Journal, 3(2), pp.80-100. Ko, S.J., Ford, J.D., Kassam-Adams, N., Berkowitz, S.J., Wilson, C., Wong, M., Brymer, M.J. and Layne, C.M., 2008. Creating trauma-informed systems: child welfare, education, first responders, health care, and juvenile justice. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 39(4), p.396. Muskett, C., 2014. Trauma?informed care in inpatient mental health settings: A review of the literature. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 23(1), pp.51-59. Bath, H., 2008. The three pillars of trauma-informed care. Reclaiming children and youth, 17(3), p.17. Jaycox, L.H., Cohen, J.A., Mannarino, A.P., Walker, D.W., Langley, A.K., Gegenheimer, K.L., Scott, M. and Schonlau, M., 2010. Children's mental health care following Hurricane Katrina: A field trial of trauma?focused psychotherapies. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 23(2), pp.223-231. Covington, S.S., 2008. Women and addiction: A trauma-informed approach. Journal of psychoactive drugs, 40(sup5), pp.377-385. Spies, C.D., Emadi, A., Neumann, T., Hannemann, L., Rieger, A., Schaffartzik, W., Rahmanzadeh, R., Berger, G., Funk, T., Blum, S. and Muller, M., 1995. Relevance of carbohydrate-deficient transferrin as a predictor of alcoholism in intensive care patients following trauma. Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, 39(4), pp.742-748.