Trauma-Informed Inpatient Care for Marginalized Women

Although optimal trauma-informed care in inpatient settings is relationally oriented, gender-sensitive, racially and culturally responsive treatment, this often is not the reality. Instead, inpatient settings frequently create experiences of retraumatization, which likely are associated with poor outcomes. This article extends the literature on trauma-informed care by drawing from existing models for working with trauma and providing culturally responsive treatment to apply an integrated approach to the inpatient care setting with a focus on the unique needs and experiences of marginalized survivors of gender-based violence and racial trauma. It details the rationale for and key elements of three related frameworks for trauma-informed care and then offers recommendations for guiding its conceptualization and implementation. Ideally, these practices will be embraced on all inpatient units and particularly with women from marginalized communities who have survived interpersonal and racial trauma. Clinical Impact Statement Question: How can inpatient providers integrate relationally oriented, gender-sensitive, racially and culturally responsive models into trauma-informed practices? Findings: We offer key elements of these three related frameworks followed by a series of recommendations for integrating these perspectives into clinical practice. Meaning: Trauma-informed providers in the inpatient context can embrace this integrated, social justice-oriented approach to respond to the needs of hospitalized survivors, particularly marginalized women who have survived interpersonal and racial trauma. Next Steps: Trauma-informed care that is relationally oriented, gender-sensitive, and racially and culturally responsive is a recommended approach for all inpatient psychiatric units moving forward.