Understanding and Responding to Trauma

This course provides a comprehensive look at trauma in a social service and healthcare setting, and aims to provide tools to better support people who have experienced trauma.

Course outline

Do you provide support and practical assistance to people who have experienced trauma?

Trauma informed care and recovery-orientated practice is a two-day online workshop designed to develop your knowledge and skills in understanding trauma and explore ways to effectively respond to the impacts of trauma on our lives.

Clinical, peer, cultural, and lived experience perspectives inform the content and delivery of this workshop.

Course details

Trauma survivors are at risk of being re-traumatised in social service and health care settings when services are not trauma informed. Services that understand and respond effectively to the impacts of trauma reduce the risk of compounding the effects and creating further harm.

To enroll in this course you will need to attend training on both Day One (Thursday 9 June) and Day Two (Thursday 16 June). Only people who attend Day One can progress to Day Two.

Course outcomes

• Identify the different types of trauma people may experience
• Identify the possible impacts of trauma on individuals and groups of people
• Recognise when people seek help from services it may create further harm and distress
• Recognise and respect people’s diverse survival skills, strengths, needs and responses to the impacts of trauma
• Identify and respond using the principles of trauma informed care, strengths based and recovery-oriented approaches to promote the mental health and social and emotional wellbeing of individuals and groups
• Promote safety and respond effectively to distress and disclosures of trauma
• Apply the principals of trauma informed care and recovery-oriented practice to service delivery and the workplace to promote health and prevent further harm for service users and workers
• Ideas for inviting feedback, evaluation and leadership with service users and survivors
• Develop self-care, collective care and protective strategies for sustaining our work and minimising the impact of vicarious trauma in our workplaces.

Who is this for?

• Peer workers
• Mental health workers
• Community service workers
• Alcohol and other drugs workers
• Housing, homelessness and refuge workers
• First responders
• Volunteers

“This course has taught me how to manage trauma, avoid re-traumatisation, and the different elements of safety,” Participant

This course, and all of Mental Health Coordinating Council’s professional development training, can be tailor-made to your workforce and delivered at your workplace. Contact us to find out more training@mhcc.org.au