From Guidelines to Social Media: A Content Analysis of Trauma-Informed Care on YouTube

Trauma-informed care is an increasingly trending clinical and organizational approach globally. Multiple guidelines exist on implementing trauma-informed care across healthcare systems, behavioral health programs, academic institutions, and prisons, among other settings. Although many studies have assessed the implementation of trauma-informed care guidelines and the integration of training into curricula for healthcare providers, workforces, and in clinical practice with individuals and communities, there have been no studies previously conducted to date on assessing the existing state of coverage on trauma-informed care across social media to inform future, actionable interventions. This represents a critical gap in research and practice given the increasingly prevalent utilization and accessibility of information online, especially via a multitude of social media platforms. This study is the first to assess the sources, format, and content across one of these social media platforms on YouTube. Content on trauma-informed care was examined through conducting a descriptive, observational study to determine the depth and breadth of content that was widely covered and uncovered across the top 100 widely viewed videos. Findings revealed that most of the content was published by professional, nongovernmental sources. A wide range of resources and strategies was presented on social media for utilizing trauma-informed care across diverse settings on individual and community levels. The five principles of trauma-informed care (safety, trustworthiness, collaboration, empowerment, and choice) were heavily reviewed among the widely viewed videos. A multitude of benefits was presented in terms of implementing trauma-informed care on both micro and macro levels. Social determinants of health were not widely covered but formed some of the stressors and triggers examined among the videos. DEI principles were also scantly covered across the videos. Several clinical and organizational implications are presented. Recommendations to integrate widely covered and uncovered content as targets for intervention in informing future trauma-informed approaches are proposed.