What is trauma aware and healing informed care?

The principles of trauma informed care are:

  • Safety
  • Choice
  • Collaboration
  • Empowerment
  • Trust

If we apply these principles, then being trauma aware and healing informed in aged care means:

  • Creating environments where people feel safe
  • Giving people as much choice as possible about all aspects of their care
  • Collaborating at all times with the care recipient and their family and supporters – that is, “doing with” not “doing to”
  • Empowering people with information and supports so they can make decisions about their own care as much as possible
  • Building trust by doing what you say you are going to do and communicating with people if there needs to be a change

When carers understand trauma they can recognise signs, know the impact of behaviours, and reduce the risk of re-traumatisation. Understanding the impact of trauma is beneficial to us all.

For those community, health and related services who may be working with Forgotten Australians and Care leavers, knowing more about them and their needs can help to provide better and more effective services to individuals, as well as to the community as a whole.

See our 10-step program

Aged care legislation and Standards

The Aged Care Act 2024 recognises many people with a range of lived experiences may have particular needs. The Act refers to adult survivors of institutional sexual abuse, as well as Care Leavers, including Forgotten Australians and former child migrants placed in out of home care.

The Strengthened Standards have an emphasis on person-centred care and the role of aged care services in delivering trauma aware, healing informed, and culturally safe care. If we can be applying the principles of trauma aware and healing informed care for Forgotten Australians and Care Leavers, we will be able to apply these principles to everyone we work with and therefore go a long way to fulfilling the requirements of a rights-based Act and the Strengthened Standards.

Specialisation verification

Under the Aged Care Act 2024, Strengthened Standards and Charter of Aged Care Rights, everyone receiving government-funded aged care is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect, and to have their identity, culture, and diversity valued. But some providers go above and beyond, tailoring their services, staff, and organisation to meet the needs of specific groups. These aged care providers can apply to have their specialised services independently verified against the My Aged Care Provider Specialisation Verification Framework (the Framework).

Our guided verification process will take you a long way towards being able to demonstrate that you are meeting the criteria and give you some of the tools you need to support your application. We need to make sure care leavers have safe aged care options available and verification is a signal that the site will have some understanding of their needs.

Acknowledgement of country

In the spirit of reconciliation we acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.