Trauma-Informed Assessment

As you are well aware, social work practitioners need to keep up to date with the relevant scholarly literature in their area of practice. As you complete assessments of clients in your practicum setting, it is important to be aware of the current research on assessments of diverse clients. For this assignment, you will read about trauma theory and complete an assessment with a client using a trauma-informed assessment tool. Trauma is a broad term that can include any type of traumatic event or ongoing chronic stress that then in turn causes pervasive, and sometimes complex, psychological issues. Trauma can include, but is not limited to, such things as: maltreatment, abuse, neglect, violent acts, natural disasters, wars, and other acts as well as ongoing circumstances of chronic stress such as living in a high conflict home or neighborhood. Trauma-informed approaches and care involves understanding trauma and how it can impact people, and viewing it through an ecological and cultural lens in recognizing how context plays a significant role in how individuals view and respond to traumatic events. Trauma-informed care is a strengths-based approach that involves being responsive to the impact of trauma, emphasizing safety, and building in hope and opportunities for survivors to regain a sense of control and power. Preventing retraumatization is a very important component of trauma-informed care because professionals can, if not educated in trauma theory, inadvertently retraumatize survivors. Thus, by learning about trauma theory and trauma-informed care and assessing for trauma, you will learn more about trauma theory, as well as its application to a real client.
Background Information

By reading about and completing a trauma-informed assessment , you likely may come across an assessment that has been found to be more effective, or “better” in some sense, than that currently being used in your practicum agency. You might, therefore, be able to bring a new (or revised) assessment practice to your supervisor’s attention and possibly provide a new or ‘better’ model for assessment of the clients that your practicum agency serves. In this way, you become a better clinician, and can work with your agency to help it better serve its clients, demonstrate professionalism, leadership, scholarship, and a better understanding of diverse and marginalized people. In this assignment, you will gain an understanding of trauma theory, trauma-informed care, and gain practice in completing a trauma-informed assessment with a client to apply the concepts you are learning about trauma in your practicum setting. Perhaps your practicum agency is not yet incorporating trauma-informed approaches; you might supply the agency with your knowledge and understanding of trauma-informed assessment, and, thus, contribute to every professional social worker at the agency in becoming more educated about trauma and trauma theory.
Instructions

1. Read Chapters 1 to 4 in TIP 57: Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services.
2. Review the Resources:
   a. Website: The Trauma Informed Care Project
   b. Website: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
   c. Article: Developmental Trauma Disorder: Toward a Rational Diagnosis for Children with Complex Trauma Histories ALL LOCATED IN THE FILES
3. Select an assessment that is described in the TIP 57 book that is based on trauma theory and that takes into account the diverse and/or marginalized/oppressed clients that your practicum agency serves.
4. Complete the assessment with at least one client at your practicum agency. (If you are unable to complete it with an actual client for some reason, engage a colleague or peer to play the role of a client that your agency serves or would serve.)
5. Submit your trauma-informed assessment taking care to anonymize it, but providing the pertinent information that would usually be included in an assessment (age, sex, ethnicity, etc.) If you had a colleague or peer play the role of a client, note this on your assessment, and include the pertinent information of the client who was being portrayed by your colleague or peer.
6. On a separate document, discuss the following:
   a. How the application of trauma theory and trauma-informed care will enable you to better assess and provide appropriate treatment or interventions for this client, as well as other clients the practicum agency serves. Give specific examples and reference course resources listed in this assignment to support your ideas.
   b. How trauma theory and trauma-informed care would be valuable in working with diverse and marginalized/oppressed clients in general at the practicum agency. Give specific examples and reference course resources to support your ideas.
   c. Would you recommend this trauma-informed assessment be integrated into your practicum agency’s (Which is a rehabilitation center for women for dual diagnosed ) regular practices? If yes, why. If not, why not? Identify pros and cons and strengths and weaknesses.
   d. How does applying trauma theory to assessment align with the NASW Code of Ethics? Identify standards and discuss their application to trauma informed treatment.
   e. How does applying trauma theory and completing a trauma-informed assessment assist you in better managing your personal biases and values in working with diverse clients?
7. Your assessment should be an appropriate length to be complete and thorough. Your paper, addressing the five questions, should be a minimum of three pages long and use APA style, including a cover page, double-spacing, one-inch margins, appropriate citations, and a reference page (not included in page count).
8. Assess your paper and assessment using the rubric that the instructor will use to grade it, making appropriate changes as needed. Do not plagiarize or over use pharaphrasing. Citations from the U.S.

Sample Solution