Trauma Informed Care
What Does it Really Mean to Be Trauma Informed?
All of us have experienced trauma in some shape or form throughout our lives. This could mean a family member passing away, a relationship ending badly, the loss of a pet or other traumatic experience.
At Oaks we strive to recognize and compassionately respond to the individuals and families we serve, our co-workers and others who have experienced trauma. To illustrate this philosophy, we strive to
- Embrace each person’s story including life experience, history and culture
- Understand what happened to a person rather than what is wrong with a person
- Offer a personalized support system in a safe, welcoming environment
A Holistic Approach
What life experiences make you who you are today? Trauma such as domestic violence, sexual abuse or loss of a loved one to addiction can have a profound psychological and social impact on a person throughout a lifetime.
We take a holistic approach to care by treating the whole person to achieve both mental and physical well-being. By treating each person who walks through our doors with dignity and respect, we can begin to address trauma, provide treatment and develop the skills to move forward.
A Trauma Informed Culture
To become a Trauma Informed organization, we fully integrated Trauma Informed Care into our culture. We developed five toolkits and trained every employee from direct care workers to management to administrative staff. We examined every aspect of our organization from the waiting room environment to the way we answer the phone to how we engage individuals in the treatment process.
Trauma informed care is key to our organization’s foundation and our core mission of helping people. We understand it, talk about it and incorporate it into every day program operations. Throughout this journey, we’ve learned that being Trauma Informed not only leads to better outcomes but communicates hope and the realization that healing is possible.
