The Importance of Rest in Trauma Services: Perhaps We Should Consider Naps!

ABSTRACT

With the increase in social service agencies providing trauma-informed care (TIC) as part of their holistic approach to client care, evidence of effective practices has emerged. This research study explores clients’ requests for real-time rest in residential treatment facilities as a part of their trauma treatment. The article will discuss the intricacies of co-occurring issues and trauma, prevalence, and further complicating issues of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE), the neurology of trauma that is indicative of the need for increased physical and emotional rest, and the tenets of TIC principles that emphasize the need for client safety, individuality in interventions, and client choice for positive treatment outcomes. The results from a mixed methods design involving participants from substance use disorder (SUD) treatment facilities (n = 47) and themes concerning desired real-time rest will be reviewed, as well as implications for residential treatment facilities providing TIC.

KEYWORDS:

• Trauma
• co-occurring issues
• real-time rest
• trauma-informed care
• treatment outcomes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. A copy of this scale can be found in Appendix A.

Additional information

Funding

The authors reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.