The Scottish Government, COSLA and partners have a shared ambition to develop a trauma-informed and trauma-responsive workforce across Scotland, to support the resilience and recovery of all children, young people and adults affected by trauma. 

Glasgow was selected as one of the pilot areas to roll out Trauma Informed Training with the primary aim to ensure our staff are ‘trauma informed’. Our HSCP pilot for rolling out the training began with staff who work in Addictions, Criminal Justice, Homelessness and Mental Health in the North East of the City. 

Recognising and responding to people affected by trauma at different life stages can require different skills and knowledge but the training will help staff to become ‘trauma informed’.

Trauma is often defined as ‘an event, a series of events or a set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or life threatening’.  It can be something that happens once, such as rape, suicide and sudden bereavement, or it could be a serious accident, or a complex trauma that takes place over a prolonged period of time, such as child abuse, human trafficking or different forms of violence including domestic abuse. Trauma can be experienced at any stage or stages in a person’s life and they can then find it difficult to trust people and can find it hard to get on in life and be safe. It can also make it difficult for them to seek help.

Being ‘trauma informed’ means that our staff will be able to: 

• recognise where people are affected by trauma and adversity
• respond in ways that prevent further harm by thinking about what will make the patient / service user feel safe
• empower the patient / service user to have control and take an active role in what happens to them
• be clear about what will happen.

Jackie Kerr, Assistant Chief Officer (Adult Services and North West Operations), Interim Chief Social Work Officer and the Trauma Champion for the HSCP said, “Trauma is more common than most people think. It’s estimated that around 60% of the UK population has experienced psychological trauma in their lifetime. For more vulnerable groups, including people in in-patient mental health, drug and alcohol services and the justice system, the figure is even higher. Helping our staff to become trauma informed means that they’ll be able to recognise when someone has been affected by trauma and adapt how they interact with the service user, enabling a more person-centred approach for anyone using our services”.

Following the pilot, the training will be rolled out to all staff. There are different levels of training and the staff member’s level of interaction with patients / service users will determine their level of training.

Jackie added, “Trauma is everyone’s business regardless of role or job –we all have a part to play!”