The Impact of Trauma-Informed Care Training on Staff Perception and Attitudes in a Community Mental Health Context

Background: This research focused on trauma-informed care (TIC) and its benefits to clients, staff, and organizations in a community mental health context. Effective training of staff is a critical organizational characteristic for successful TIC implementation (Harris & Fallot, 2001). Previous studies have shown that single-day trauma-informed training is effective in improving TIC (Williams & Smith, 2017; Palfrey et al., 2019). However, to offer TIC to clients, other areas of the workplace, including areas of supervision, policies, procedures, and physical environment, may also need to be addressed. The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of TIC training at a single community mental health organization to provide evidence of training effectiveness and to inform organizational practices for implementing TIC.

Methods: A survey comprised of TIC knowledge assessment items, the ARTIC scale, and practice behavior items was administered to Family Service providers (N = 68) who were either trained (n = 29) or untrained (n = 17) in TIC. A quasi-experimental design was employed to assess the impact of TIC training on staff perception of trauma-informed care (TIC) and their attitudes and knowledge of TIC. Additionally, correlational analysis was used to explore the perceptions of TIC across all Family Service providers.

Results: The results showed a positive correlation between staff perception of TIC in clinical supervision and their attitude (r = .35, p < .05) and perception of TIC in the agency (r = .47, p < .01). Positive perceptions of staff ability to incorporate TIC in their clinical work were related to more favorable attitudes about TIC (r = .36, p < .05), TIC in the agency (r = .38, p < .05), perception of TIC in clinical supervision (r = .71, p < .001), and receiving adequate TIC training (r = .49, p < .01). ANOVA analyses showed no significant difference between TIC knowledge scores for staff who were trained and untrained, as well as no significant difference between attitudes about TIC for trained and untrained staff. However, there was a statistically significant difference between how trained and untrained staff perceived TIC impact on clinical supervision (F(1,33) = 5.18, p < .05) and how well their clinical work integrated TIC (F(1,31) = 7.53, p < .01).

Implications: Overall, the results suggest that staff's perception of TIC in clinical supervision had strong associations with attitudes and perceptions of TIC in the agency. In addition, positive perceptions of staff ability to incorporate TIC in their clinical work were related to their overall attitudes about TIC, how the agency implements TIC, their perception of TIC in clinical supervision, and receiving adequate TIC training. The study also found that people who reported that TIC informed their supervision were more likely to express favorable TIC attitudes and were also more likely to have a favorable view of organizational implementation. This suggests that a trauma-informed approach should be embedded in the supervision process to maintain trauma-informed practices.