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This course is designed to build awareness around trauma-informed care across all healthcare settings in Australia and the UK. It provides healthcare professionals with what they need to understand trauma, recognise its impact, and implement trauma-informed practices to provide respectful, safe, and person-centred care to those who have experienced trauma.
Every day, across Australia and the UK, healthcare professionals are supporting people who may be carrying invisible wounds, deep emotional scars from past experiences of trauma. Whether it’s a survivor of domestic violence, a refugee who has fled war, a child who’s faced years of neglect, or an elderly person living with complex trauma from decades past, trauma is more common than we often recognise.
Trauma doesn’t just affect patients. It shapes how they interact with the system; how they respond to questions, to procedures, to authority. If we aren’t aware of how trauma can manifest in behaviour, communication, and even physical health, we risk doing harm where we intend to help.
That’s where trauma-informed care comes in.
This training is designed to build awareness across all levels of healthcare - clinical and non-clinical alike. It helps us understand trauma, recognise its signs, and adjust our practices to deliver care that is safe, respectful, and healing. It’s about creating environments where people feel seen, heard, and supported, not retraumatised.
Why is this especially important in Australia and the UK?
In Australia, we have unique histories and challenges - intergenerational trauma among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the legacy of the Stolen Generations, and ongoing issues with family and domestic violence. In the UK, childhood trauma, social disadvantage, and the mental health impacts of austerity policies have led to similar concerns, along with rising awareness of trauma among veterans and refugees.
In both contexts, trauma is not rare, it is widespread.
Yet trauma is not always visible. A patient may arrive in distress, withdrawn or angry, and we might only see the behaviour, not the history behind it. But trauma-informed care asks us to shift the question from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What’s happened to you?”, and that single shift in perspective can change everything.
By the end of this course, learners will understand how trauma affects the brain, how it shapes behaviours, and how even small changes in communication or environment can have a profound impact on a person’s sense of safety and dignity.
This is not about adding another layer of red tape or complexity. It’s about empowering healthcare teams, from reception to recovery rooms, to interact in ways that build trust, avoid re-traumatisation, and support recovery, not just treatment.
Ultimately, it’s about strengthening person-centred care, because no matter what role people play in healthcare, being trauma-informed is everyone’s responsibility.
This course provides an understanding of:
This course contains contextualisation options to suit your learners. The course allows learners to select one or more of the following regions to access relevant content:
