Trauma-Informed Care
A traumatic event threatens a child’s physical safety and emotional well-being. Examples include events that are frightening or dangerous at home or in the world — including domestic violence, gun violence in the street, and living in a war zone. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) — child physical abuse, child sexual abuse and assault, emotional abuse and neglect, exposure to domestic violence, parental substance use, parental separation, and parental death — are all traumatic events or circumstances.
Trauma-informed care is a universal approach to provide compassionate care to the human being who has experienced trauma. All providers recognize, respond to, and work to address the effects of trauma on children and their families.
Pediatricians and other pediatric health care professionals are uniquely positioned to partner with families to identify and address trauma in children and adolescents.
Trauma-informed pediatric health care professionals are trained to:
- Promote safe, stable, nurturing relationships
- Recognize signs of traumatic stress
- Assess symptoms
- Provide treatment when appropriate
Trauma-informed care depends on safe, stable, and nurturing relationships between the child survivor and the medical caregiver. Pediatricians are well-positioned to support the child-caregiver bond. This relationship enables children to recover from the trauma they have endured — and to foster resilience through the creation of safe spaces that promote health.
Pediatricians are likely to be the first, and often only, professionals who encounter the nearly two thirds of American children who have experienced trauma and have the greatest potential for early identification and response to childhood trauma.
Excerpt from the American Academy of Pediatrics