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[Project status: Ongoing]
Project Summary
This research programme aims to explore and map the use of trauma informed care approaches in inpatient, acute and crisis mental health care settings. The principles of trauma informed care (as outlined by Sweeney and Taggart, 2018) include: i) foregrounding the understanding of the prevalence and impact of trauma, ii) seeking to actively reduce traumatic practices in mental health services, iii) and creating a therapeutic environment where communication, collaborative working and empathy for service users is prioritised. These principles are crucial in mental health care settings where levels of trauma are higher than among the general population.
The primary research project is a scoping review, led by academic, clinical and lived experience researchers. It will firstly explore and map current trauma informed care service provision in our settings of interest. Subsequently, we aim to investigate the experiences and views of both service users and staff relating to their engagement with trauma informed care, the way trauma informed care influences interpersonal relationships in our settings of interest, and how trauma informed care impacts on the way individual services and broader organisations operate.
Protocol is available here