Trauma-Informed Care Implementation and Staff Satisfaction

Background and Purpose: Trauma-informed care (TIC) presumes that everyone (from clients through agency management) has a history of trauma. Given the prevalane of trauma in society, it is beneficial for human service agencies to work from a trauma-informed perspective. This study examined the effects of implementing TIC on the satisfaction of agency staff. As staff self-care is a primary component of a TIC organizational approach, its implementation was expected to increase staff satisfaction.

Methods: This study compared the results of a satisfaction survey taken in January of 2014, a month prior to the agency's implementation of TIC, and again at twelve months following implementation. The surveys were conducted by an external agency, and include factors measuring staff satisfaction with the workplace, relationship with management, agency direction, delivery of services, and connection with the agency. The implementation process included the following components: staff training on TIC principles, a train the trainer model for staff at various organizational levels on the implementation of TIC and trauma-sensitive and specific treatments, and the development of staff champions to provide consultation for the operationalization and application of TIC within the agency's procedures and policies.

Results: Following the implementation of TIC, agency staff reported higher scores in all but one of the satisfaction survey’s factors. The most notable increases from pre to posttest in terms of percentages were in the delivery of services (16%), relationship with management (13%), connection with the workplace (11%), satisfaction with the workplace (9%), and direction of the agency (7%). Relative to other non-profit social service agencies, following implementation of TIC the agency staff fared better in percentages of scores in their relationship with management (10%), direction of the agency (7%), feelings of connectivity with the workplace (6%), and delivery of services (5%).

Conclusions and Implications: There is limited research on the effects of implementing TIC approaches on agency staff. The current study reports increases in staff satisfaction along numerous dimensions following the implementation of TIC. Increases in staff satisfaction have been tied to better staff retention rates and reductions in absenteeism, burnout and secondary traumatic stress. Therefore, implementing TIC approaches within social service agencies is associated with increased staff satisfaction, and may positively influence organizational characteristics of significance to social service agencies.