A Holistic Approach to Care
Organizations should employ a holistic approach to support healing and resiliency within families to break intergenerational cycles of violence and trauma.
Domestic Violence, social services and other child-serving programs are each essential parts of a community’s service network for children and families. Given the prevalence and effects of experiencing domestic violence on children, families, program staff, and organizations must prioritize the needs of children and youth in addition to the needs of adult survivors.
What is a holistic approach to care and why does it matter?
Providing care through a holistic lens means all parties involved recognize and respond to the multi-dimensional needs of children, caregivers, and staff themselves. Organizations that use a holistic approach infuse and sustain trauma awareness, knowledge, and skills into their organizational culture, practices, and policies. Collaborating with all those who are involved with the child and using the best available science will maximize physical and psychological safety, facilitate the recovery of the child and family, and promote and support staff well-being. Organizations that serve children and families have an opportunity and an obligation to identify harm to families and help them receive appropriate care as early as possible, to prevent potential negative outcomes and promote children’s ability to thrive. Providing care through a holistic approach requires that organizations also support their staff by preventing and addressing the impact of secondary trauma.
A service system with a holistic perspective is one in which programs, agencies, and service providers:
Routinely screen for trauma and related symptoms
Use evidence-based, human-centered assessment and intervention for traumatic stress and associated mental health symptoms
Make resources available to children, families, and staff on the impact of trauma and options for healing
Engage in efforts to strengthen the resilience and protective factors of children and families impacted by family violence
Build meaningful partnerships that emphasize continuity of care and collaboration across child-service systems
Maintain an environment of care for staff that addresses, minimizes, and treats secondary traumatic stress, and that increases staff resilience
Address the convergence of trauma with individuals’ backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, as well as the influence of history, location, and language
Acknowledge the unique impact of how families have experienced systems and/or have been met with obstacles to safety and healing
These activities are rooted in an understanding that holistic care agencies, programs, and service providers:
Build meaningful partnerships that create mutuality among children, families, caregivers, and professionals at an individual and organizational level.
Address the intersections of trauma with individuals’ backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, as well as the influence of history, location, and language. They also acknowledge the compounding impact of obstacles created by practices and institutions that are not human-centered, and are responsive to the unique needs of communities.