Trauma Informed Practice

At the CEWH, we bring a trauma-informed lens to all our projects. In keeping with our mission to bring research to practice and policy, we have collaborated with organizations, provincial and territorial governments, and women with lived experience, on numerous projects designed to support the integration of trauma informed principles into practice and policy.

Key examples of these projects include:

• Co-creation of the Trauma Informed Practice Guide (2013) with the BC Mental Health and Substance Use system. This guide continues to be relevant to practice, and is one of our most accessed documents (funding from the BC government).
• Organization-wide work over four years with the YWCA Toronto towards becoming trauma informed through the TIDE- Trauma Informed Development Education project (funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada).
• Collective work with leaders from across Canada to further integrate trauma-informed, sex/gender-informed and gender transformative approaches into practice and policy when addressing substance use and addiction, resulting in New Terrain: Tools to Integrate Trauma and Gender Informed Responses into Substance Use Practice and Policy – also available in French (Funding from Health Canada).
• Engagement with Nunavut, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories on identifying needed responses to women facing homelessness, mental health, trauma and substance use concerns in the Repairing the Holes in the Net project (funding from the CIHR).

Additional resources created on the topics of trauma informed practice:

Info Sheets and Guides:

• Finding Trauma-Informed Support (2024) – This info sheet was created to help women find, and advocate for, trauma-informed healthcare and social services.
• Methamphetamine use & trauma informed approaches (English, French, 2022) – This Conversation Starter for healthcare providers supports brainstorming among staff about applying trauma informed practice into services for people seeking treatment for methamphetamine use.
• Recognizing and Attending to In-the Moment Responses (English, French, 2020) – This one-page sheet describes trauma responses and offers ideas to attend to them.
• Grounding Activities and Trauma Informed Practice (2018) – In this resource, 10 grounding activities are described to support trauma informed practice.
• Three discussion guides draw upon Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and trauma-informed practice (2018):
  1. Trauma-Awareness, Sex, and Gender Skills for Trauma-Informed Practice (English, French, Inuktitut)
  2. Strengths-Based Conversation Skills for Trauma-Informed Practice (English, French, Inuktitut)
  3. Grounding Skills for Trauma-Informed Practice (English, French, Inuktitut)
• Trauma Informed Practice Principles in Action: Reflective Questions (2017) – This resource describes the four principles of trauma informed practice and offers discussion questions are intended for small groups to consider and reflect on their work.

Toolkits:

• Trauma Informed Practice & the Opioid Crisis: A Discussion Guide for Health Care and Social Service Providers (English, French, 2018) – This resource is intended to stimulate conversations on trauma-informed practice and assist health care and social service providers in considering additional ways of addressing the opioid crisis.

Training:

• Powering Up! Trauma Informed Leadership from Self to Community (2020) – This training introduces participants to the principles of trauma-informed leadership, helping an organization become trauma-informed.
  • Participant Workbook
  • Facilitator’s Guide

Multimedia:

• Trauma, Gender, Substance Use Video Series (2018)

Collaborations and Partnerships:

• Healing Families, Helping Systems: A Trauma-Informed Practice Guide for Working with Children, Youth and Families (2017) – Co-created with the BC Ministry of Children and Family Development, this resource to builds upon promising practices to improve support and expand relationships with families, other practitioners and other systems of care.
• Becoming Trauma Informed (2012) – This multi-authored book, edited by CEWH Director Nancy Poole and Senior Investigator Lorraine Greaves, developed and published in partnership with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, describes trauma-informed practice at the individual, organizational and systemic levels. The collection brings together the voices of those who have integrated trauma-informed principles into various mental health and addiction treatment and social service environments, and of the diverse groups with which they work.

Learn more:

• Visit the Publications page to find related journal articles and other publications of interest.