Trauma Informed Approach Part 1

We work in a trauma-informed way, meaning the impact of trauma is everyone’s business and the principles of safety, trust, choice, collaboration, empowerment and cultural consideration are key to our care. These principles are deliberate, as typically these are the opposite of the experience of trauma.

• Safety

Trauma can leave you with a residual sense of not feeling safe. Feeling safe fosters healthy relationships and builds trust between staff and veterans, which is the the foundation of recovery. We seek to integrate our knowledge of the impact of trauma into the whole organisation’s practices and policies to ensure veterans feel safe with us.

• Trust

We prioritise trust and transparency. This means being clear about what we can and can’t do, explaining what our treatment entails and what is happening so that veterans understand the care we offer and trust us to deliver this.

• Choice

Trauma involves a lack of control so one of our main goals is to create experiences for veterans that involve shared decision-making and choice.

When deciding which treatments are most suitable for a veteran’s needs, we will always take into account veteran preference. We will also explain the clinical rationale behind different treatments options so veterans can make an informed decision about their care.

• Collaboration

Using a collaborative approach means that we work with veterans, not for veterans – we get to know you, not a diagnosis. We directly involve veterans’ voices in decision making about our services to constantly improve what we do and develop our specialist treatment.

• Empowerment

Trauma can often make individuals feel disempowered. At Combat Stress, we want veterans to feel empowered to make decisions and that they have ownership of their treatment journey.

From the very start we want a veteran to feel that engaging with our services is empowering, that decisions are explained, education about mental health is provided so that veterans can understand themselves better, and that their experiences are at the heart of how we understand why they might be struggling now.

• Cultural Consideration

We want veterans from all backgrounds to feel confident that they can access our service and will be treated with dignity and respect at all times. This includes removing barriers to care, being careful with our language, sharing life stories of veterans from different groups, such as women or LGBT veterans, and tailoring our treatment to the individual life experiences of the veteran community.