Trauma-Informed Care in Mental Health

Running head: TRAUMA-INFORMED CARE IN MENTAL HEALTH
TRAUMA-INFORMED CARE IN MENTAL HEALTH
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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TRAUMA-INFORMED CARE IN MENTAL HEALTH
Trauma-informed care is one of the useful health care procedure that help the care
personnel that is the nurse or the doctor in understanding the patient’s past history or about his or
her personal information and results in a better care planning for the patient (Machtinger et al.,
2018). This care policy would be very helpful in the mental care for the patient’s who would
have been experiencing depression or other kind of mental disorders as well. Here in case of
Mark, he can be diagnosed with the help of trauma-informed care model as he shows the
symptoms of depression, bipolar disorder and lack of discipline which resulted in his problematic
substance usage. Mark was addicted to cocaine and when he transferred to a rehab he needed to
be cared properly and that is when the care personnel would have used the trauma-informed care
model to gather knowledge about his trauma which puts him depression and made him a cocaine
addict (Rosenzweig et al., 2017). In the following section the issues of Mark would be discussed
and how the use of trauma-informed care would be useful in the care of his mental health would
also be discussed as well.
Mark was selected for under 19 team of Essendon when he was an under 15 player, it
shows that how much talented he was. However, in 1983 his pre-season was not good and he had
a bad flu and he felt really down, it was the time from when his depression and bipolar disorders
started to gain control over him. Despite of these factors 1989 was his best year in his whole
career and after two years that is in 1991 he again started to feel down and often cry in the toilets
before his warm ups. Before his match in Melbourne he cried and told her mother that he could
not play and he need to stop as he had not been able to take the pressure because of the mental
and physical traumas he was experience during that period. Back then he was 28 years old and he
got addicted to cocaine as a result of his depression and lack of discipline in life. His unusual
mood changes and intense emotional changes could be described as the bipolar disorder and

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TRAUMA-INFORMED CARE IN MENTAL HEALTH
these disorders also the affecters of his mental state that lead to his addition to drug such as
cocaine (Nimh.nih.gov, 2019). According to Mark that was the time which was not much
advanced in the health promotion processes as present days that is why they were not been fully
aware about the negative mental disorders and their effects in daily lives. He also stated that his
friends rallied in the streets to raise money for his treatment when he was admitted in a rehab that
is help from his friends which made him fight against his depression and the bipolar disorder in
the age of 43. In 2014 Christmas barbeque party of Essendon made him change his nature of
distancing himself from the family and friend as one of his old friends invited him in a coffee
shop to talk over a cup of coffee. Mark also said that mental problems are huge problems and
often people hide them but they should seek help and talk with others to get out of these ill
conditions. It clearly indicates the importance of health care personnel that could be a nurse to
follow the trauma-informed care for these patients (Naslund et al., 2015). This policy would
allow them to gather knowledge about the patient’s past experiences and thus help the nurse in
understanding the condition of the patient (Sara & Lappin, 2017). This would help the nurse in
planning a better care system for the patient however, in case of Mark proper communication and
showing kind gestures would help him to fight against his bipolar disorder and depressive
conditions. Trauma-informed care is a model that helps the nurses or the doctors to know about
the patient’s past and personal experiences in a manner where the kind gestures of the doctor or
nurse helps the patients to open up about themselves. In some cases the patient could take their
friends or family members whom they trust most to the sessions of examination or counseling. In
mental health problems such as the problems Mark faced would be difficult to assess properly as
these have no proper or traditional treatment procedures. Thus present advancement in the health
promotion programs by the organizations such as SANE and others are one of the factors that