What should direct care staff know about trauma–informed care in intellectual disability services? A qualitative study

Purpose Trauma-informed care is a system-level approach that seeks to integrate an understanding of trauma and the impact of this. This study aims to understand the current awareness of trauma-informed care in direct care staff within an intellectual disability service to help inform trauma-informed care training. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with direct care staff. The transcripts were analysed using framework analysis. Findings Analysis identified five themes: levels of understanding, training, challenges of the environment, individualised care and benefits of trauma-informed care. The interviews highlighted variation in direct care staff understanding of trauma and trauma-informed care, and the ways in which training should be designed and delivered to improve understanding of trauma-informed care. Potential barriers to the implementation of trauma-informed care were also highlighted. Originality/value It is recognised that trauma-informed care may be of particular importance within intellectual disability services due to the specific vulnerabilities of these populations and the interventions utilised within services. When designing trauma-informed care training, it is important to consider both core principles of trauma-informed care and personalised approaches in relation to the person with an intellectual disability that staff are supporting. These findings will help inform the design of future trauma-informed training and practice. Implementation of training should be considered in the context of what helps transfer to practice (e.g. situating training within a wider organisational approach to trauma-informed care).