Traumebevisst omsorg på barnevernsinstitusjon

The purpose of this paper is to explore how social workers can apply traumainformed care in environmental therapy with adolescents in child welfare institutions. The method chosen to explore this question is a literature review that seeks to gather literature on the subject. The paper mainly focuses on Howard Baths model for trauma-informed care which is based on safety, connections and managing emotional impulses. Youth in child welfare institutions often have history with repeated traumatizing events, such as neglect, which can lead to developmental trauma. Developmental trauma can cause multiple adversities later in life and these adolescents often struggle with feeling unsafe and find it hard to enter new relationships. A lack of emotion regulation in their early childhood can also lead to difficulties regulating own impulses and reactions. Therefore, this study seeks to examine what is required of a social worker in the application of trauma-informed care and what youth consider important in the care of the social worker. Results show that the three pillars are strongly intertwined and interdependent in the application of trauma informed care in child welfare institutions. It has also become clear that it is equally important for social workers to constantly work on themselves through self-reflection, self-regulation and self-accept.