The importance of a trauma-response during COVID-19:

Many of the individuals we work with on a daily basis have experienced significant trauma in their lives and the impact can touch all aspects of their life.  However, during this pandemic, we are seeing a rise in mental health issues across the broader public and experts predict that for many, this will be a traumatic event.

SafeGuards is continuing to provide a 5 week training online training on Trauma-informed Practice to help build the capacity of organizations and practitioners.

"A trauma-focussed response to COVID-19 is important because evidence points to increased rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following pandemics (Wu et al., 2014). Being prepared for potential psychological effects of trauma resulting from the current outbreak could help protect people and organise services (Brooks et al., 2018). It is crucial to consider people’s experiences of COVID-19-related trauma in the context of their psychosocial circumstances, including existing mental disorder and socioeconomic position (The Lancet, 2020).

The pandemic’s effects on people working on the front line, including healthcare practitioners and essential workers supporting people living with consequences of coronavirus, is especially concerning. In particular, for hospital workers treating patients with COVID-19, the psychological impact of prolonged exposure to stressful conditions, fear of exposure to the virus and separation from loved ones could be profound. While the scale of this pandemic is unprecedented in recent history, encouragingly, studies of other types of disasters have found that humans are generally highly resilient to trauma (North, 2014)."

Covid Trauma Response Working Group, coordinated by staff at University College London and the Traumatic Stress Clinic at Camden and Islington NHS Trust.

Here is a useful PDF:

Responding to stress experienced by hospital staff working with Covid-19: guidance for planning early interventions