Project Name: Trauma-Informed Practice For Workers In Public Service Settings
Project Acronym: TIPS
Project Number: 2021-1-BE02-KA220-VET-000034849
Project Coordinator: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven) (Belgium)
Type of Project: Erasmus +, Cooperation partnerships in vocational education and training (KA220-VET)
Project Lifetime: 1st of November 2021 until 31st of October 2023
Maximum grant: 225.555,00 €
Official website: TBA
Partners:
P1 – KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN (Belgium)
P2 - MEDRI - Sveuciliste U Rijeci, Medicinski Fakultet (Croatia)
P3 – WIN - Wissenschaftsinitiative Niederösterreich (Austria)
P4 - INTEGRA INSTITUT- Institut za razvoj clovekovih potentialov velenje (Slovenia)
P5 - QUALED - obcianske zdruzenie pre kvalifikaciu a vdelavanje (Slovakia)
P6 – Connexions Information Communication Technologies for Education and Social Impact, Private Company (Greece)
P7 – Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Escola Superior de Saúde (Portugal)
Project Summary:
The project will build upon the successful Erasmus+ project “Post-traumatic Integration – Low-level Psychosocial Support and Intervention for Refugees”. This project had been met with great interest and received the distinction as best practice project. During their dissemination activities, several partners had been asked if the project could be extended to serve as support for various professionals who are in their work in contact with clients or people who suffer from posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) but do not have a professional training. The number of persons in Europe suffering from PTSS is likely to increase in the years to come. Migration from war-torn countries will continue, and the current Covid-19 pandemic has not just negative physical but also negative mental health consequences because of psychotraumatization. People who suffered from serious COVID-19 illness and potential death; family members and health care workers who have witnessed others’ suffering and death; those who have learned about the death or risk of death of a family member or friend due to the virus or those who have experienced extreme exposure to aversive details (volunteers, social workers, journalists etc.). In other words, increased numbers of people have been exposed to COVID-19 related traumatic events and represent a group exposed to the specific traumatic experience in need for adequate recognition and response to their trauma on all levels. Based on a thorough needs analysis, we found that especially in the public sector many professions are confronted in their work with clients who have PTSS: labour office advisers, social benefit workers, housing department officers, lawyers, debt counsellors, just to name a few. All these professionals have their specific professional experience but no medical or psychiatric training how to deal with a person who suffers from PTSS. Consequently, they frequently misjudge their clients because they are likely to interpret their behaviour as selfish, inappropriate, or arrogant. Trauma-informed approach recognizes the presence of trauma symptoms and acknowledges the role that trauma has played in individual's life and requires a change in paradigm from one that asks, ‘What's wrong with you?’ to one that asks, ‘What has happened to you?’” Implementing trauma-informed counselling would help service professionals, who are medical and psychiatric non-professionals, to recognize, understand and appropriately respond to the effects of trauma..
The general objective of this project is therefore to raise the awareness about the occurrence of PTSS and to equip professionals working in the public sector with skills which help them to identify PTSS among their clients, to promote their inclusion, to reduce barriers linked to discrimination and, as a consequence, to improve their respective service or counselling work. To reach these objectives, the specific objectives are:
- To compile user-oriented Guidelines for professionals working in the public sector to raise their awareness about the occurrence of PTSD among their clients, and to equip them with skills which help them to identify PTSS among their clients and to promote their inclusion;
- To develop a Catalogue with Case Studies Collection illustrating the most common work situations which shows examples how to react to clients who are suffering from PTSS;
- To develop training materials related to the respective chapters of the Guidelines and the particular Case stories;
- To enable networking and exchange of experience through implementation of an e-platform for the access to all contents and training materials;
- To give immediate access to the products through development of mobile applications for smart phones;
- To achieve sustainability by providing access to of the project’s outputs for at least five years after the end of the project, i.e., until 2028.
Coordination of the project in ESS / Researchers involved:
Prof.ª Regina Silva
Prof.ª Artemisa Rocha Dores
