Recognizing Trauma
A program, organization, or system that is trauma-informed RECOGNIZES the signs and symptoms of trauma in clients, families, staff, and others involved with the system, organizations, and communities.
What are the Signs and Symptoms of Trauma?
Trauma can be experienced by individuals, organizations, and communities.
For individuals, trauma can occur throughout life and can be recognized through physical, emotional, social, and developmental signs and/or symptoms unique to each individual. While some individuals may have recognizable signs of trauma, such as severe outbursts, high levels of anxiety, or not meeting their childhood developmental milestones, others may not show any of these signs or symptoms. Additionally, symptoms like outbursts do not automatically indicate the presence of trauma, as there are a number of circumstances that could cause these behaviors and delays.
Like individuals, organizations and communities may also show unique signs of trauma.
Individual and family traumas are the most widely known and talked about type of trauma. Examples of individual trauma are abuse, neglect, interpersonal violence, homelessness, medical crisis, incarceration, parental substance use, unmanaged mental illness, and caregiver absence through separation, divorce, or death.
Signs of trauma can be manifested as physical, emotional, social and developmental symptoms. It is important to recognize common signs of trauma, but there is not an exhaustive list.
Physical symptoms of trauma can include being easily startled, experiencing high levels of fatigue, experiencing insomnia, having changes in sleeping and eating patterns, and visual signs of abuse and disruption such as severe bruising.
Emotional and social symptoms of trauma include exhaustion, confusion, sadness, anxiety, agitation, numbness, dissociation, shame, guilt, mood swings and anger, as well as social isolation, withdrawal, and a lack of interest in previously enjoyable activities.
Emotional and social signs of trauma can also be represented in high levels of perfectionism, people-pleasing, anxiety, and overachieving. In addition, severe experiences of abuse and neglect during childhood can lead to children not achieving developmental milestones.
(www.cascadebh.com/behavioral/trauma/signs-symptoms-effects/)
Organizational trauma can happen at any agency. Some commons signs of organizational trauma are high levels of burnout, compassion fatigue, high turnover rates, and increased sick days among staff members. Organizational trauma can occur due to high caseloads, harmful policies, unsupportive management, white supremacy culture and discrimination, and/or traumatic experiences within the organization or with clients. It is also important to recognize that some individuals may experience vicarious trauma, which is the emotional distress experienced when someone is exposed to disturbing images or another person’s difficult stories. Vicarious trauma is commonly seen in helping professions such as social workers, teachers, first responders, etc.
Organizations who are experiencing big change such as new leadership and direction or financial stress may also show signs of trauma.
A community is defined as a group having a particular characteristic in common, such as individuals living within a geographical area, individuals with shared identities, or members of the same church or school. Any community can experience trauma, such as a mass shooting or a devastating hurricane. Community trauma can also be ongoing, in the form of historical trauma or unfair conditions like long-standing limited economic opportunities, a lack of social services, poor housing conditions, racial violence, and prevalent community violence.
A community that has experienced trauma may have a lack of trust, lack of relationships, low public engagement, a widespread sense of fear and shame, isolation, or crime, as well as conditions such as deteriorated or unhealthy public spaces, a low sense of collective political and social usefulness, high levels of intergenerational poverty, long-term unemployment or limited employment opportunities, and overall community disinvestment.
(Adopted from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority)
A System can be defined as a network of people or agencies designed to administer resources and programs, such as the criminal justice system, foster care system, school system, shelter/homeless serve systems, and the healthcare system. All systems can cause harm. For example, an individual who has experienced sexual assault can be harmed as they repeatedly tell their story to law enforcement officers, hospital staff, and social workers. People can also be harmed by the biases of people within the systems, particularly if these biases create a lack of understanding and delays in accessing services.
Navigating multiple systems throughout a lifetime can compound the impacts of trauma. Individuals experiencing system-induced trauma may experience fear, lack of trust, persistent paranoia, intense flashbacks, and/ or anxiety related to the systems they interact with.
While some individuals may have recognizable signs of trauma, such as severe outbursts, high levels of anxiety, or not meeting their childhood developmental milestones, others may not show any of these signs or symptoms.