ABSTRACT
Trauma-informed care is an emergent paradigm in mental health and human service delivery, the implications of which extend far beyond the mental health sector from which it derives. The paradigm stems from the recognition that trauma is highly prevalent, that most clients who access the public mental health system have trauma histories (Jennings, 2004), and that the current organisation of health and human services does not reflect this reality and is inadequate to cope with it. It also stems from an acknowledgment of the disturbing reality that far from providing safe environments for the many traumatised people who access mental health services, “trauma has often occurred in the service context itself” (Jennings, 2004: p.6).
