What Does Trauma-Informed Social Work Really Mean?

Welcome back to the Social Work Café blog, where we review the latest episode, which is all about trauma-informed social work.

In episode 13, I was joined by one of my favourite social work colleagues, Dr. Andreia Schineanu (and her bag of delicious Lindt chocolates).

Andreia starts the conversation by sharing with us her fascinating career, which involved being in the field of science as well as doing a PhD before returning to postgraduate study to become a qualified social worker, because why not?!

There is no straight line when it comes to our careers.

Even before entering social work, Andreia had a passion for social issues, especially around mental health, women’s health, refugee health, and domestic and family violence.

It is because of her vast experience in these areas that I wanted to chat with her about the growing prominence of trauma-informed practice and what it means for social work.

In full honesty, I was a little sceptical when I first heard about the growing prominence of trauma-informed practice some years ago, as it sounded like a new fad with lots of buzz words and phrases.

However, my views on this changed when I put my cynicism aside and went back to trauma literature, especially seminal works that have been around for decades like Judith Herman’s classic, Trauma and Recovery.

(Judith’s historical overview and examination of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy is just mind-blowing.)

While trauma-informed practice is often presented (especially by organisations) in a neat package of common principles, Andreia clarifies that it has an underlying view of the world that actually has profound implications for how we conceptualise problems, human experiences, and behaviours.

In contrast to conventional psychological and medical approaches that often pathologise human behaviours, a trauma-informed worldview sees behaviours as attempts at coping with past experiences of trauma.

(Dr. Jessica Taylor does a great job of explaining and distinguishing these ideas)

With this in mind, trauma-informed social work means:

·         understanding how trauma has the potential to impact people

·         de-pathologising people’s experiences and behaviours

·         developing therapeutic alliances that allow people to process their experiences, including how behaviours are often attempts at coping with trauma

·         advocating for organisational and policy change that truly centres trauma-informed ideas

The highlight of our conversation was the case example that Andreia unpacked from her time at mental health.

She examines how the health system did not respond in a culturally appropriate way or consider prior experiences of trauma for a young person from a refugee background.

It is a very powerful practice example that demonstrates Andreia’s point that trauma-informed ideas can be relevant to any health and human services profession, not just social work.

I also love how Andreia talks about what a trauma-informed organisation could look like, where it is designed or set up to have sufficient space as well as access to preferred staff so that the focus is on meeting the needs of clients.

Of course, the ideal can often be different from reality, as organisations are often under-resourced.

We finish the conversation with Andreia’s definition of social work, and I love the way she approached the challenge, by distinguishing the social work profession (that has a credential) from social work practice:

…any work that anyone does that works towards improving the wellbeing, the health, or the social and political state of one or any group of humans.

What do you think of this definition?

I think it shows that while we have a profession, social work is bigger than the profession as well, and the definition beautifully reflects Andreia’s own background before she became a qualified social worker.

I’m incredibly grateful for this conversation with Andreia and her courage to unpack a practice example.

She has certainly helped me see the value and profound implications that trauma-informed social work can have for practice and organisations.

We have a lot of work to do to transform health and human services, but I think we are up for the challenge.

Stay informed social work.

Dr. B