State of knowledge Implementing trauma-informed systems of care in health settings: The WITH study
This paper examines the available literature on trauma-informed frameworks, models and guidelines that guide organisations to improve service provision to survivors of sexual violence with mental health problems.
It finds that while both academic and grey literature show consistent themes about the principles of trauma-informed care, there is little evaluative evidence to inform organisational and systemic change. To address the challenges in producing evaluative evidence, including the suitability of standard methodologies and the complexity of evaluating systems-level change while acknowledging the context of individual systems, the paper recommends that future research examines:
- How can we ensure that trauma-informed care is meeting the needs of women who have experienced both mental health issues and sexual violence?;
- How can we better integrate mental health and sexual violence service paradigms and approaches to trauma-informed care?;
- How can we enact trauma-informed care in practice when dealing with women who have experienced both mental health issues and sexual violence? and;
- How can we successfully implement trauma-informed care at an organisational level within complex health systems?
Publication details
This work is part of the ANROWS Landscapes series. ANROWS Landscapes (State of knowledge papers) are medium length papers that scope current knowledge on an issue related to violence against women and their children. Papers will draw on empirical research, including research produced under ANROWS’s research program, and/or practice knowledge.
Authors
DR ANTONIA QUADARA
Research Fellow, Australian Institute of Family Studies.
ISBN: 978-1-925372-04-5 (print) 978-1-925372-05-2 (online)
37 pp.
Suggested citation
Quadara, A. (2015). Implementing trauma-informed systems of care in health settings: The WITH study: State of knowledge paper (ANROWS Landscapes, 10/2015). Sydney, NSW: ANROWS.