What is CSA Trauma-Informed Care?
Trauma-Informed Care Origins
Wings centers our work within a legacy of progress in the field of Trauma-Informed Care.
Trauma-informed Care originated from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). It validates that events or experiences that may be harmful, threatening or overwhelming to a person can create trauma at any age in a person’s life. It also affirms that trauma can be healed with the appropriate supports and interventions.
Trauma-informed Care is based on the question, “what happened to you?” rather than “what is wrong with you?” The types of things that might have happened to a person throughout their life span may fall within a number of categories. These are listed below:
Learn more about Trauma, CSA Trauma & Oppressions – (coming soon!)
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study
In recent decades, leading researchers have validated that when traumatic events happen to a person during their childhood, the impacts of those early ‘Adverse Childhood Experiences’ (ACEs) can be severe. This is because the traumatic events happened during the developmental years, when all parts of a child’s sense of self (mental, emotional, physical, spiritual and relational) were still growing and maturing.
Kaiser Permanente and the CDC have proposed the ACE Pyramid as one way to visualize the impact of ACEs on long-term wellness and the development of negative health and life outcomes. Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) trauma is one of ten ACEs this study measures. It is one of the most prevalent yet least identified and treated ACEs.
Learn more about the ACE Pyramid (coming soon!)
Trauma-informed Care is grounded in the tenants of:
- Safety
- Trustworthiness and Transparency
- Peer Support
- Collaboration and Mutuality
- Empowerment, Voice and Choice
- Acknowledgement of Cultural, Historical, and Gender Issues
Wings adheres to these tenants, and we center the experience of childhood sexual abuse within the many types of traumatic experiences someone might have throughout their lifetime – for which they may now need “Trauma-informed Care” support. We do this for several reasons:
- Because the prevalence of this issue is so high, the likelihood that an adult has experienced this trauma is also high.
- The developmental nature of this abuse (meaning that it happened during the formational years in a person’s life) can result in a range of symptoms showing up in a person’s life today. The likelihood of repeated childhood sexual abuse is high, and it puts people at risk for additional victimization and trauma in adulthood.
- Repetitive trauma often results in complex trauma responses with severe long-term negative impacts. If symptoms of complex developmental trauma are untreated, the symptoms are likely to persist or worsen. If they are treated, the symptoms may resolve, and the survivor may experience post-traumatic growth rather than prolonged symptoms, additional harm, or negative health consequences. CSA trauma can be healed with the right support and resources. Identifying CSA trauma is essential to healing it.
- Finally, and most importantly, we do this because even today, many providers who want to practice Trauma-informed Care have not been trained to incorporate this knowledge and practice into their screening, referral and treatment approaches for clients. We are here to provide that learning opportunity.
It takes a Community – What CARE means to us
While Wings adheres to this “CSA Trauma-Informed Care” approach and recommend that professionals and providers educate themselves as individual learners and practitioners, we take things one step further when we talk about CARE. And that is – it takes a community.
Years ago, leaders recognized that children who were sexually abused were having to tell their stories 10 times, to 10 different providers and being re-traumatized every time. They came together to create the Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) model, which centers the experiences of children who have experienced sexual abuse to make sure they get the care and support they need by having these many professionals working together, around the needs of the child.
Similarly, decades ago, the world of sexual assault recovery realized that adults who experienced recent sexual assault or rape needed immediate crisis response. Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) protocols were developed and changed the landscape for victim/survivors of sexual assault to receive the care they need.
Wings is proud to unveil our ASCSA CARE Collaborative model, centering the needs of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse with the coordinated trained professional response they need to see, speak, heal and thrive. This pioneering approach was developed in collaboration with a Statewide Task Force of survivors, loved ones and leading providers in the field, essentially, in community.
Community:
- Recognizing this issue as a community health and justice issue. The connections to be restored in survivors’ lives are individual, family and community connections, prioritizing equity in all.
Action:
- Giving survivors, loved ones, allies, community members and professionals practical tools to apply new knowledge and take new action to support adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
Response:
- Educating individuals on how to respond and educating our collective membership of providers on how to respond to this issue so that adult survivors can get into and through services in all the ways they need to heal and thrive.
Engagement:
- Outlines consistent ways to get and stay engaged in this issue – whether you are a survivor, loved one, ally or professional – you are a part of changing our culture on this issue. By turning towards the reality of the prevalence and long-term effects of CSA, one another and the collaborative supports and services survivors need to heal, you are transforming this hidden violence into hope and healing.
Our ASCSA CARE Collaborative approach centers CSA trauma as an individual, family and community health issue. It will take education, healing services and broad participation to restore our communities and the lives of everyone in them.