Resources for Providers

Whether you are a mental health professional, a doctor, a nurse, a clerk, a chaplain, or an environmental services worker – working in a practice or environment where you care for folks who have had traumatic injuries/life experiences can be challenging – to say the least. Working with this population can also be rewarding – sparking professional and personal growth. Resilience and posttraumatic growth is a thing – for everyone involved.

This work will change you and we owe it to ourselves and the people we care for to be prepared.

Equip Yourself

Providers of all types should participate in a trauma-informed care training program, preferably in person. There are many providers of this type of training, including Healing Hurt People Chicago and Cook County Health.

Develop Your Skills

There are interventions designed specifically for those with traumatic injury. Many of these practices have on-line training modules that are quite good – especially in conversation with trained clinicians.

Information also helpful for new healthcare professionals is the Psychological First Aid field operation guide by NCTSN.

Take Care of Yourself

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare.” –Audre Lorde

Secondary/Vicarous Trauma symptoms can sneak up on you and tend to be minimized because you did not have a direct experience of the traumatic event that put your patient/client/ participant in your orbit. Especially for first responders, including trauma and ED professionals, HHPC takes a stance that we often are in the middle of the traumatic event as it unfolds – with individuals affected and their families and loved ones. Special care needs to be taken to keep us healthy.