Educational Practices for Providers of Trauma-Informed Care: A Scoping Review

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Social Work Education
• Healthcare Training

Background:

• Growing understanding of trauma necessitates examining education for trauma-informed care (TIC).
• Focus on training for professionals working with individuals aged 0-21 experiencing trauma.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a scoping review of existing literature on trauma-informed care (TIC) training.
• To examine training programs for professionals interacting with youth (birth to 21 years) affected by trauma.

Main Methods:

• Systematic search of six academic databases.
• Inclusion of 16 peer-reviewed articles from medicine/nursing, social work, and education.
• Literature review focused on publications from 2012 to 2019.

Main Results:

• Most trauma-informed care (TIC) training protocols share foundational elements.
• Significant variation exists in TIC training practices across different professional disciplines.
• Disciplinary differences in training approaches were identified.

Conclusions:

• Due to varied training approaches across disciplines, definitive best practice guidelines for professional settings cannot be established.
• Further research is needed to develop standardized, evidence-based TIC training across professions.
• The heterogeneity of TIC training highlights a need for interdisciplinary collaboration and standardization.