When it counts the most: trauma-informed care and the COVID-19 global pandemic.
Open accessAbstract
CONTEXT: Evidence from the COVID-19 crisis suggests that children and youth are more likely to be subjected to maltreatment and exposure to family violence, while experiencing limited access to the usual services that support vulnerable families and provide targeted services to meet their needs. The current global pandemic itself can also be experienced as a traumatic event. Trauma-informed care draws attention to the potential impacts, from the individual to the global, that myriad traumatic experiences can illicit and proposes using these understandings as foundational to the development and implementation of policy and practice. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this opinion paper is to offer insights to guide practices and policies during this unprecedented global crisis through a discussion of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2014)’s six trauma-informed care principles: trustworthiness and transparency; safety; peer support; collaboration and mutuality; empowerment and choice; and cultural, historical and gender issues. FINDINGS: Specific recommendations based on these six principles and applied to the current situation are presented and discussed. These principles can serve both in the immediate crisis and as preventative measures against unforeseen future traumatic contexts. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 renews the imperative to maintain and strengthen trauma-informed practices and policies. We argue that never before has trauma-informed care been so important to promote the health and well-being of all and to protect our marginalized populations at greatest risk.
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MAP Training may lessen the risk and thus help prevent secondary traumatic stress and associated distress among teachers who may have been exposed to student trauma during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Therefore, MAP Training may lessen the risk and thus help prevent secondary traumatic stress and associated distress among teachers who may have been exposed to student trauma during the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., Collin-Vézina et al., 2020; Kovler et al., 2021).”
From Mental and physical training with meditation and aerobic exercise improved mental health and well-being in teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic (2022) · cites this paper as Collin-Vézina et al., 2020
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- Authors
- Collin-Vézina, D., Brend, D., & Beeman, I.
- Affiliations
- Director of the Centre for Research on Children and Families, Director of the Canadian Consortium on Child & Youth Trauma, Nicolas Steinmetz and Gilles Julien Chair in Social Pediatrics in Community, Associate Professor, School of Social Work & Associate Member, Department of Pediatrics, McGill University, Montreal, Québec, Canada
- Université de Sherbrooke (CA)
- McGill University (CA)
- Venue
- Developmental Child Welfare
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2020-08-04
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 172-179
- ISSN
- 2516-1032 (ISSN-L)
- 2516-1040
- OpenAlex
- W3047508410
- Cited by
- 69
- References
- 14
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 7
- FWCI
- 5.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Developmental Child Welfare (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- SSHRC Partnership Grant (895-2020-1016)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Child Welfare and Adoption
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Keywords
- trauma-informed care, COVID-19 pandemic, child abuse, family violence exposure, children and young people, safety, peer support, access to services, marginalized communities, child welfare policy
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