Trauma-informed care in childcare organisations to support children exposed to child maltreatment: Joint conclusions of four European countries

Abstract

Trauma-informed care is emerging as a promising good practice to recognise, treat and prevent trauma in young children. The use of trauma-informed care in childcare organisations might have a positive impact on children who suffer from child maltreatment. The current study organised desk research and focus group discussions with professional experts in Latvia, Italy, Hungary and Belgium to assess if trauma-informed care is known, applied or taught. The joint conclusions of the desk research and the focus group discussions demonstrated that childcare professionals currently lack the knowledge, skills and attitude to engage in trauma-informed care. Even though they have ways to prevent and tackle trauma, these ways are often based on gut feeling or experience and are not formalised or explicitly addressed. This lack of conscious knowhow is an issue that possibly leads to underreporting of situations of child maltreatment and a lack of attuned responses to children suffering from child maltreatment. Overall, there were no training initiatives focused on trauma-informed care for childcare professionals, which might explain why these good practices do not reach the sector.