Diploma of Mental Health: Trauma-Informed Care Simulation and Report

This assignment details a simulation conducted at Fairview Support Services, where the student, acting as a mental health professional, interacted with three clients experiencing mental illness and trauma. The assignment required the student to apply trauma-informed care principles, assess client strengths and coping strategies, and address potential barriers to effective communication and intervention. The student documented the client interactions, including the barriers encountered (such as emotional guarding, communication difficulties, and wartime memories), and the strategies used to promote safety, facilitate self-care (both for the client and the practitioner), and prevent re-traumatization. A supervisor report was generated, outlining the interventions, feedback from clients, and recommendations for policy improvements within Fairview Support Services, including continuous improvement and updates to trauma-informed care policies. The student also reflected on their practices and provided suggestions for enhancing service delivery. The assignment emphasizes the practical application of trauma-informed care in a clinical setting, highlighting the importance of empathy, self-awareness, and culturally sensitive communication.

CHC53315 Diploma of Mental Health
CHC53215 Diploma of Alcohol and Other Drugs
Module 11 Relating to trauma and co-existing needs
Assessment 4 – Working with Trauma
Instructions
To complete this assessment you are required to conduct a simulation that reflects workplace conditions. There
is more information on simulation in the Assessment Guide.
This task will require you to work with 3 clients with mental illness who are also affected by trauma. Your
clients will be referred to as Client 1, Client 2, and Client 3. Refer to Client trauma profiles for details.
Fairview Support Services
For the purpose of the simulation you are an employee at Fairview Support Services (FSS), an agency that treats
clients with mental health, alcohol and other drug issues. You have access to:
 the Fairview Agency Policy (outlining relevant policy and procedures for working with clients at FSS,
including relevant policy and procedures for working with clients affected by trauma.)
 Client Trauma Profiles
 Client Data form
 Client Evaluation form
Part A - setting the scene
During the simulation you will be caring for 3 clients with mental illness who are also affected by trauma.
Preparation
Examine the 3 client trauma profiles and consider the needs of each client. Recruit three adults to play the role
of your clients in the simulations you will conduct. Before commencing the simulations make sure your
participant is fully briefed and able to respond to you as you work in your role. You should spend up to an hour
with each client.
Before commencing your work with the 3 clients, review the key principles and practices of trauma informed
care and apply these principles to the completion of all tasks.
1. Ensure you apply the principles and practices of trauma informed care as you work with your
3 clients. Do the following:
√
a encourage safety by preventing traumatisation and re-traumatisation in the provision of
service
b respond to disclosure of all trauma and abuse
c respond to behaviours and distress related to trauma
d assist the client to identify their personal coping strategies and resources
CHCMHS007 Work effectively in trauma informed care
CHCCCS004 Assess co-existing needs
CHCCOM006 Establish and manage client relationships
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CHC53315 Diploma of Mental Health
CHC53215 Diploma of Alcohol and Other Drugs
Module 11 Relating to trauma and co-existing needs
Assessment 4 – Working with Trauma
Part B – Working with clients
In Part B you will be working directly with your clients to assist them in their recovery. Make notes on the
Client data form during the meeting. At the end of the session, ask your clients to report back through the
evaluation form on your performance. It is important you respond to your clients’ comments in order to assist
them. You will be required to submit the 3 client evaluation forms.
2. Help your 3 clients suffering from trauma by meeting with them and completing the following
tasks:
√
a assist them to identify their personal strengths and resources
b identify their personal strengths and resources
c assist them to recognise their personal coping strategies and adaptions
d identify their personal coping strategies and adaptions
e make sure you apply self-care as you work with the client on preventing re-traumatisation
f ensure great care not to take on the trauma experienced by the client (vicarious trauma)
g ask each client to complete a client evaluation form
h respond to your client comments and where possible rectify any difficulties
3. On completion of your work with your clients, write a report for your supervisor incorporating
the following items:
√
a outline all barriers you encountered in working with your 3 clients
b describe how you made sure you applied self-care as you worked with the clients to prevent
re-traumatisation
c describe how you ensured you did not take on the trauma experienced by the client
d outline the strategies you applied to enhance your trauma informed work
e describe the feedback you received from clients in relation to your service delivery
f outline how you responded to each client’s feedback
Supervisor Report:
For client 1 whose name is selena, the major barriers encountered was an emotional guarding,
denail and violent outburst of tears which dirupted the communication, evaluation and the
intervention process in a major way. The other barriers encountered was lack of collaboration from
the client's side and lack of expression due to guarding. The client was extremely emotional and shy
to talk about or respond to the questions asked in the interventional process. While working with
client 1, I applied the self monitoring technique to keep my own emotions such as concern, anger in
check. I professionally addressed her feelings of denial, avoidance,shame and guilt without judging
her or pulling myself into it. I used empathic techniques to understand her emotions and the
resultant behavior arising from the same but I used strong self management skills to prevent myself
CHCMHS007 Work effectively in trauma informed care
CHCCCS004 Assess co-existing needs
CHCCOM006 Establish and manage client relationships
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CHC53315 Diploma of Mental Health
CHC53215 Diploma of Alcohol and Other Drugs
Module 11 Relating to trauma and co-existing needs
Assessment 4 – Working with Trauma
from giving away into it. In order to improve my trauma informed care - i have ensured physical
and emotional safety to the patient, i have made sure that the individual has choice and control. I
have enhanced my truma informed practice by colloborating with Selena and by improving her self
efficacy skills. Throughout my care, i have focussed on empowering the subject and make her take
conscious and justified decisions for her own life which helps her to travel abroad and self actualize
her full potential. During the sessions, i re- assessed and recallibrated her feelings about the past
trauma that has led to her emotional, eating and relationship problems into her present life. these
are common psychological reactions developed due to past childhood or adolescent trauma and i
have address the client's problems with integrity, compassion and motivation. My client Selena
found the service to be satisfactory and helpful to her current disrupted condition. I responsed to the
client's with thankfulness and gratitude for having received my service.
For client 2 - whose name was Fred, i have encountered different types of barriers such as social and
communication barriers. Fred speaks with heavy english accent. As he is from phillipines and comes
from a very different cultural background and we had a tough time collaborating with each other in
the begging but i took up a culturally compement approach to converse with Fred. After a while, i
observed and analysed a deep socio-emotional problem bordering on near apathy due to past
economic problems of the family. Spending more time, i understood that a severe social and self
identity issue for which he keeps, changing his jobs. i used self monitoring and self management
skills to demarcate my emotional involvement with Fred's story. i asked him to tell me his story in
his own words and the exact problems he has been facing. After listening to his problems peacefully,
I, as a mental health care specialist, ensured esteem and emotional itegrity to the subject. i
empowered him to reflect on his life as profoundly as possible and recallibrated his hard feelings
about his own life to the less vulnerable ones. I tuned his neurotic personality to a more open and
emotional stable side by rationalizing the problems, desensitizing th noxious social factors. I have
used empathy and problem solving model to address his condition. Fred was content with the care
received and he thanked me on a personal note for helping him and was ready to come for the next
session. I thanked him back for his graciousness and understanding and ensured that he comes back
for the nest session which is extremely important.
For client 3 - Jason is a returned veteran who spent 10 years in Afghanistan and has a lot of stress
coping with his current social scenario and with the stress of wartime memories from the past. He
has lost a lower limb in the land mine accident and has to leave the military for the same reason and
this incident has first triggered a complex stress reaction in the subject. Throughout my session with
her - he turned silent at times and refused to speak up. The barriers were communication block,
emotional numbing of the subject and confusion about his present situation in life This case weas
the most challenging to handle and it took me considerable amount of time to open up the client to
express his problems. As a care expert, i ensured confidentiality, integrity and siocial, emotional
security to the patient and then only he spoke up about his family related and how severely he feels
about the incident of his wife leaving him alone because of his behavioral problems. Once he started
expressing, i could feel the transferance of the same outbursts onto me but i self monitored myself -
channeling my concern in the right way, to the right direction. I took up purposeful planning,
problem solving approach for helping Jason strategize his goals and priorities in a correct way so
that he can puropsefully work on the stabilty of his social identity and emotional state in order self
motivate himself to become a more responsible person as whole. At points, i used cognitive
behavioral therapy and behavioral change tool to transform and monitor changes in his own
personality as the sessions proceeds further. I ensured trustworthiness in the subject so that he
CHCMHS007 Work effectively in trauma informed care
CHCCCS004 Assess co-existing needs
CHCCOM006 Establish and manage client relationships
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CHC53315 Diploma of Mental Health
CHC53215 Diploma of Alcohol and Other Drugs
Module 11 Relating to trauma and co-existing needs
Assessment 4 – Working with Trauma
works on his self belief that he can better real soon and reconcille the distorted relationships with
his family. Screening for the trauma and using the trauma specific tools - such as social and esteem
management of the subject - are the strategies i have used for enhancing my trauma informed care.
Jason was pretty guarded in the beginning and it took time for him to openly conserve with me but
once his real problem was started getting addressed, Jason was willing to receive more therapies
and care in order to better to social situation as soon as possible. Jason provided a good feedback to
me and i responded to the same with positivity. I acknowledged him for coming over and i
expressed my advice to have him in the next session.
4. Reflect on your practices in the work environment and pass on all the potential improvements
you have identified. Contribute to the improvement of service policy relating to trauma-
informed care at FSS by:
√
a collating all ideas and documenting potential improvements
b writing in point form, at least 2 policy updates to add to the existing service policy on trauma
informed care
Continuous improvement:
During my session with Selena, i have noticed a series of changes in her attitude and behavior which was quite
observable in her. Initially, as mentioned earlier that she had a history of sexual trauma and it left a very serious
impact on her persona and choices of life and a prolongled drive for escapism and freedom defined her desires
and existence. While I provided my specialist care to the subject, the subject developed a kind of attachment
and dependence with me as well, that i had to take care of, professionally. I have reflected on the case and
identified that once an individual who is emotionally distressed due to a past childhood or adolescent trauma -
it keeps triggering a 'coping behavior' repetitively in th individual which can be very disordered such as eating
disorders, relationship and emotional dettachment problems. Hence, reconciling the present emotions with the
impact of past trauma is important and i have learned from my session with Selena, that other than talk
therapies - catharsis can be a very important tool in treating the unconscious shaping of the present behaviour.
She needed existential support and counselling to a great degree and over the session, as i developed
mindfullness and self awareness in Selena as she responded to the mental health intervention process well. I
gained the knowledge that helping a person deal with the present situations of life takes an effort to reconcile a
person at first with the past unsolved problems and explaining the very state of the 'trauma's understnding' to
the individual. Broadening the awareness of the subject to his or her existence and complying him with the
existential knowledge - is a very vital step in changing the distorted thought process and thought content of
the person. A humanistic approach along with psycho analytic approach is required to address the trauma care
and empowering the patient to take control of her life is very critical as well.
During my session with Fred, at first i faced a considerable amount of process and personal barriers while
buidling up rapport with the subject and i realized that it is very important that to understand the
CHCMHS007 Work effectively in trauma informed care
CHCCCS004 Assess co-existing needs
CHCCOM006 Establish and manage client relationships
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CHC53315 Diploma of Mental Health
CHC53215 Diploma of Alcohol and Other Drugs
Module 11 Relating to trauma and co-existing needs
Assessment 4 – Working with Trauma
siocioeconmic factors prevailing in one's childhoood and its psychosocial impact on an individual. Throughout
my sessions with Fred, it was clear that the individuals with complex family attachement problems in their
childhood continue to reflect in the same aspects of their experiences in to their behaviour and personality.
While he spoke of his social fear of being rejected and not acting upto the work expectations - he showed a
strong deficit of social identity and self awareness. He was strongly impacted by the bullying behaviour of the
fellow colleagues and culturally, he has various incompetencies. In my sessions with Fred, he talked about his
relationship problems and how he has been through different short lived relationships with women and he was
not being able to connect with them. This, according to him, was due to cultural and psychosocial aspects of
the difference and he failed to manage a meaningful relationship with any of them. While it is important that
the subject should become more confident and in control of himself. My intervention was focussed on
addressing the esteem needs and socio economic needs of the subject that improved the subject's situation
greatly. In these case, taking up a cultural competent apporoach is very important in handling these cases and
empowering the subject with social and emotional securirty is very very important. The nature of the truma
informed care in this case, should emphasize on self and personality development along with development of
psychsocial side of the subject. Developing confidence in the individual and rationalizing the present situation
to the subject and how to improve self awareness and self realization upon the same is crucial to address these
kind of cases.
While working with client three - i realised that the veterans returning from military life and battle scenario
suffers from a fair share of post trumatic stress disorder more or less. Jason had severe stress, anxiety due to
his health restriction caused by losing of a leg and resultant discontinuation from the army. In the beginning of
the session, i came across communication and psychological barriers which has to be analysed and observed in
order to plan the further interventions. as because, the subject had the will to be transformed by recieving the
care - he opened up about his problems gradually. In this case, it was important to make the subject self-
realize his responsibilies as a husband and a father. It is important to act with ampathy and compassion while
helping the subject recover from the traumas of past and teach him social management techniques in order to
cope with the social scenarios at first and then help the subject with the correct interpersonal strategies to
solve the differences with his wife. Self awareness, mindfulness and inter personal strategies are major tools
that can be used in these kind of scenario. While taking care of the situation from a humanistic and problem
solving approach, care must be taken to densitize the effect of emotional and psychosocial trauma from the
subject's memories. Existential counselling and ognitive behavioral patterns can be very useful tools that can
be used to address the social isolation and social detachment problems in the person. It is extremely important
that the subject is mindful about the problem and the subject should be motivated to consciously make the
positive choices of his own. Empowering the subject with choice and control and re-educating him
interpersonal skills is a vital psychosocial intervention. Talk therapy can be a very beneficial tool where the
subject is asked to talk about his problems freely and just by empowring the subject to talk, a mental health
care specialist can access the root of the problems along with the nature of the same. Then only, the specialist
can teach avoidance techniques and stress- anxiety management techniques to the subject himself.
Two policies change in relation to truma informed care are :-
1. The trauma informed care should be client centric and take care of the client's esteem and belonging needs.
2. The trauma informed care must focus on the patient's actual needs and a purposeful problem solving
approach has to be taken.
CHCMHS007 Work effectively in trauma informed care
CHCCCS004 Assess co-existing needs
CHCCOM006 Establish and manage client relationships
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CHC53315 Diploma of Mental Health
CHC53215 Diploma of Alcohol and Other Drugs
Module 11 Relating to trauma and co-existing needs
Assessment 4 – Working with Trauma
CHCMHS007 Work effectively in trauma informed care
CHCCCS004 Assess co-existing needs
CHCCOM006 Establish and manage client relationships
Version 1.1 2017
Template 4.1
Page 6 of 6