A Decade of Trauma-Informed Care: An Organizational Case Study

ABSTRACT

There is optimism that the effects of childhood adversity can be mitigated through trauma-informed care (TIC) practices in school settings. This study investigated a nonprofit, therapeutic school’s experience with implementing and sustaining TIC. At both the organizational and individual levels, factors exist that complicate the application of TIC principles. This case study utilized a qualitative approach to better understand staff’s conceptualization of TIC, their attitudes concerning TIC, and their experiences using TIC practices. After a decade of TIC within the organization, the study found that staff have maintained overall favorable attitudes toward TIC, assimilated TIC principles into their beliefs about students, and view student aberrant behaviors through a TIC lens. Conversely, TIC failed to serve as a protective factor for staff due to an insufficient response from larger systems. Finally, the study showed that the lack of attention to historical traumas and systemic racism has the potential to compel staff to diverge from TIC practices. This research adds to the literature as it amplified the voices of staff to reveal the benefits and challenges of TIC.

KEYWORDS:

• Trauma informed care
• trauma informed organization
• sustaining trauma informed care
• trauma informed case study
• staff voice
• systemic racism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).