A study from 2023 showed that training mental healthcare staff to use Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) and the Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF) improved outcomes among service users. The program reduced self-harm and the use of seclusion and restraint.
Now, a follow-up study explores how and why the program worked. Interviews with staff members and service users showed that the program provided a basis for staff to better understand why their patients responded the way they did, and created a more compassionate environment with more helpful responses.
“Staff felt that the trauma-informed practices provided a meaningful conceptual framework for the better understanding of service users’ difficulties, which led to increased compassion and a wider range of helpful responses toward service user distress. Service users reported that they had gained new insights and skills, and been helped by their admission,” the researchers write.
The interviews also helped to identify the barriers in the current system that make it hard to implement this type of care.
The study was conducted by Faye Nikopaschos and other researchers at Harrow Adult Mental Health, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL), London, UK. It was published in Frontiers in Psychology.
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