Trauma-Informed Self-Care for Child and Youth Care Workers

Abstract

This article presents a framework for understanding, developing, and applying a trauma-informed approach to staff, team, and organizational self-care in youth serving organizations. The article draws on current research in the areas of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE), Trauma-Informed Care (TIC), Trauma Stewardship, resilience, and The Sanctuary Model. This approach will help child and youth care workers to develop a long lasting, effective trauma-informed self, team, and organizational care plan. The first article focuses on worker trauma-informed self-care, and the second on team and organizational approaches. Since there are limits as to what can be comprehensively covered in a short article, I will supply an extensive list of key references and resources relevant to self, team, and organizational care. Many of these are directly downloadable from the Internet. Thus, I do not attempt to answer all the issues but encourage readers to explore the various resources and ideas and apply them where relevant to the readers, their team, and organizations.