Continuing Culture Change: CDC Trains Emergency Responders in Trauma-informed Care
At Benchmarks, we invest time and resources into training child welfare colleagues on the importance of having a trauma-informed workplace. We believe it is important for the children and families to receive trauma-informed care as well as employees to recognize symptoms of secondary traumatic stress. It is very rewarding knowing that ultimately children and families in child welfare are getting the trauma-informed care that they need to be resilient.
Recently, the CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response and SAMHSA have developed a trauma-informed care training on how to respond during public health emergencies. The Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response at CDC stated “adopting a trauma-informed approach is not accomplished through any single particular technique or checklist. It requires constant attention, caring awareness, sensitivity and it may require a cultural change at an organizational level.” This is a good reminder that to change the culture, we first need to make changes internally within our own organization. This training was the first step for CDC to view emergency preparedness and response through a trauma-informed lens.
The goal of the training is to increase responder awareness of the impact that trauma can have in the communities where they work. Participants learned six principles that guide a trauma-informed approach, including:
- Safety
- Trustworthiness and transparency
- Peer support
- Collaboration and mutuality
- Empowerment, voice and choice
- Cultural, historical, and gender issues
Many of us have friends and family members responding daily to public health emergencies in the community. We are encouraged that the CDC has recognized the need to train staff. It would be awesome to see this training expanded to the state and local level, especially with the added stress and fatigue responders are experiencing due to Covid. By continually viewing our work through a trauma-informed lens, we can advocate for internal system changes towards trauma-informed workplaces thatpositively impacts our culture.
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