Benefits of workplace collaboration with a trauma-informed support service: a qualitative study

Trauma-informed services can benefit people involved in a healthcare or legal process by supporting them to engage with systems and minimise risk of retraumatisation. Research also suggests that the integration of trauma-informed services can benefit staff members who work with these services. This study sought to explore outcomes for staff members following the introduction of a trauma-informed navigation and support service for victim-survivors involved in sexual boundary violation complaints lodged with the Australian health practitioner regulator.

Researchers conducted a series of semi-structured interviews (n = 13) with regulatory staff members who had engaged with the support service. Interview transcripts were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis to qualify participant experiences and detail outcomes of working with the service.

Four main themes related to outcomes of collaborating with the support service were identified: (1) additional support for engagement work, (2) changes to interactions with victim-survivors (notifiers), (3) personal benefits of collaboration, and (4) improved perception of workload. These themes showed that staff identified positive collaboration with the service and benefits resulting from that collaboration. However, a negative case analysis identified perspectives that did not fit with the main interpretation of the data, where participants did not see a clear need for the service. This demonstrates some of the challenges implicit to integrating a new service within an organisation, including how perception of benefits can be limited due to conflicting personal or professional ideologies.

Staff within a national regulator identified personal and professional benefits resulting from workplace collaboration with a trauma-informed service introduced to support victim-survivors. With the introduction of any new service, challenges can arise, and thoughtful planning is required prior and during implementation to understand individual and environmental factors that may impact integration.