For millions of Americans, substance abuse is about self-medication and treating pain, discomfort, and trauma. Today, some 46.3 million Americans struggle with drug and alcohol use disorders. Taking a trauma improved approach to their care means taking that background of substance abuse to alleviate pain and incorporating it into treatment. It’s also increasingly the standard approach for hospitals, clinics, and ERs.
People are complex and struggle with mental and physical health problems for a variety of interconnecting reasons. A trauma-informed approach ensures that your caretakers understand what’s influencing your health, how to best handle it, and how to treat not just the symptoms but also the underlying problems. For substance use disorders, that often means looking at the reasons you use and not just use, although that can mean extending treatment times to allow you to recover from substance use disorders enough to make those realizations.
Trauma informed care is a general approach to medical care that’s used in emergency care, long-term care, hospice care, and behavioral healthcare. It involves creating a program based around the patient. It also involves building an environment that is safe and supportive of the patient. And, most importantly, it means training staff to look at and approach addiction and its treatment in the right way so they can provide an inclusive, safe, and caring environment.
Essentially, trauma-informed treatment or care can involve a great deal. Typically it’s broken into multiple steps or processes, although most are delivered at the same time:
Creating a safe environmentThose steps mean that the individual will feel safe enough to get treatment, will have the tools to share underlying problems, can treat the problems rather than the symptoms of trauma and stress, and can learn the tools to seek out help or care rather than turning to drugs or alcohol in the future. It goes full circle.
If you or a loved one has a substance use disorder, trauma informed care for SUD can add a lot of value to your program and your treatment. Here, trauma-informed care fits into every aspect of your care – from emergency room admission to long-term rehab and counseling. Trauma-informed care means approaching you as if you are an individual with your own unique reasons behind behavior and choices and working to figure out those reasons and find solutions.
That means helping you to recover from addiction, not just by reducing the addiction, but by helping you to tackle the reasons you were drinking or using to begin with. And, that can be a powerful approach to your recovery.
Treating Underlying Causes – Trauma informed care works to try to understand the underlying causes behind substance abuse so you can move on with your life without being back in the same position you were before addiction.
Improving Engagement – Trauma-informed care works to make patients feel listened and talked to by creating safe environments. That can help you to better engage with treatment and therefore get more from it.
Customized Programs – Trauma-informed care ensures that patient tracks are customized based on the patient. This means making recommendations based on your medical history, updating your track as you move through therapy, and working with the patient to understand behavior, the underlying causes, and workarounds. It means tailoring your program to you so that it works for you and your problems.
Eventually, trauma-informed care relies on you engaging with your treatment center, sharing your truth, and getting treatment for that. That normally means having one on one treatment, getting check-ins, and having the space to share with your medical caretakers.
Trauma-informed care relies on having a well-trained staff, a program that is flexible enough to incorporate individual care, and to offer a safe environment. However, if your treatment center can offer trauma-informed care, it can add a lot of value to your treatment. That’s especially true if you get follow-up treatment, with multiple touchpoints with your treatment center, so they can continue to offer more specific treatment as you move through recovery.
In each case, trauma-informed care will mean that your substance use disorder treatment is personalized, based on your history of mental health problems, and works to treat underlying causes as well as the symptoms of substance use disorder. However, often, you’ll start by treating the most pressing issues of addiction and cravings first so that you have the space to focus on full recovery.
Good luck getting treatment.
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