Understanding the Complexity of Trauma-Informed Practice, Essay Example

Individual trauma manifests following an event, cascade of events, or a set of circumstances that an individual goes through that is life-threatening or emotionally or physically harmful and has enduring effects on that person’s functioning and physical, mental, emotional, social, or spiritual well-being. Trauma profoundly affects an individual’s ability to cope and experience a high-quality life due to the neurological, biological, psychological and social effects it has on the sufferer. With a resurrective ideology in an age of trauma, the clinical intervention known as Trauma Informed Practice (TIP) will be used for Jackson’s case because of his experiences in war the Posttraumatic stress disorder due to his exposure to violence and other anti-social behaviours growing up in an extremely unstable home. If Jack’s trauma goes unaddressed, then persons like Jack can develop mental illnesses and/or additions that can yield adverse physical and mental health outcomes while also blunting the recovery process.

Incorporating TIP in various domains of child service systems and those on child welfare should be seen as adaptation to trauma rather than as pathology. Traumatic experiences that Jackson went through during childhood manifests in his extreme fear and helplessness because his mother was an extreme alcoholic. As a result, her substance abuse  unequivocally disrupted the development of a secure attachment between Jackson and his primary caregiver, which subsequently amplified the likelihood that he developed potential to develop certain attributes that undermine his functioning as he develops into adulthood. Empirical studies have confirmed that persons like Jackson’s mother who are addicted to alcohol or other psychoactive substances usually develop insecure attachment styles and express avoidance within attachment dimensions. Attachment has been pinpointed as being linked to anxiety since insecurely attached youths have a lower likelihood of developing competent and sound emotion regulation as well as social interaction skills. As such, they are at a higher risk for developing anxiety and other mental health conditions. A trauma-informed practice can be defined as a treatment paradigm and an organizational structure that involves comprehending, acknowledging, and responding to the deleterious effects that all forms of trauma had on an individual. Furthermore, TIP underscores physical, emotional, and psychological safety both healthcare providers and the patient, thereby assisting trauma survivors rebuild and revive a degree of control and personal empowerment.  TIP calls for observing the patient at child-level to discern if he or she has the knowledge and skills that can decrease mental health symptoms and emotional effects from the trauma while increasing engagement and satisfaction with the patient’s programs. Furthermore, the knowledge embedded within TIP aims at making a difference by addressing any secondary traumatic stress through the signing of a memorandum between the state and multiple child service systems to lead this kind of care.

The main concepts in the TIP’s approach to treating trauma involves broaching the patient with sensitivity experience to capture Jackson’s colour of emotional neglect, parent separation, and his mother’s alcohol exposure to decrease emotional difficulties. The task force policies and protocols must be devised and implemented in a way that aims at mitigating any possibility of re-victimization of Jacksons while also enhancing the safety for all actors involved and increasing the efficiency and efficacy of the interactions with the trauma victim. Therefore, emotional responses constitute complex psychological states that people go through and can incite memories of subjective experiences, thereby informing physiological and behavioural responses in their daily lives.

Clinical interventions of TIP recognize the ubiquitous effects of trauma while also understanding the prospective recovery paths for patients like Jackson. In this case, the intervention must address how trauma has caused issues in his brain function, which underlies his engaging in anti-social and defiant behaviours.  A person’s response to trauma affects his or her brain structure, brain function, and physiological response which manifests in how that individual comports themselves throughout their lives. Jackson clearly engaged in risky health behaviours as coping mechanisms for the trauma he endured in childhood as discerned in his substance abuse, violence in the armed robbery of the chemist, and self-harm. Thus, trauma-informed practice targets how neurobiological pathways inform irregularities and abnormalities of physical reactions. Clinical interventions thus recognize the symptoms and signs of childhood trauma in clients, staff, families, and the other actors who are involved in the system. TIP can be implemented in a broad array of service settings or entities. In the year 2012, the Blue Knot Foundation established practice guidelines for healthcare practitioners to follow for the Treatment of Complex Trauma and Trauma Informed Care and Service Delivery. This seminal publication received much praise and widespread endorsement by researchers, scholars, clinicians, and survivors of trauma. Thus, operational trauma informed practice approach ensured safety and emerged as a for trauma survivors to be proactive members in their healing and recovery.