Talking about adversity, trauma and resilience

The Institute of Health Visiting welcomes today’s publication by the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) which aims to build understanding of the power of framing messaging when communicating about adversity, trauma and resilience in infants, children and young people (ICYP), alongside three clear recommendations for practice.

The iHV is delighted to have been involved as a partner in this important project which forms part of a three-year, four nations collaboration project, funded by The Health Foundation, focused on Infants, Children and Young People (ICYP) and health inequalities. The project aims to increase engagement across the four nations and bring together key partners across the wider determinants of health to discuss policy and the evidence base, share good practice, and produce resources to improve outcomes and tackle health inequalities for ICYP.

Today’s publication, “Talking about adversity, trauma and resilience” is the key output from a workshop held earlier in the year, led by ADPH and FrameWorks UK with a wide range of professionals working in the children’s sector. The aim was to explore ways to better explain the causes and impact of adversity, trauma and resilience faced by ICYP to policy makers and the wider public. Amongst the key drivers was a recognition of the need to shift away from fatalistic or deterministic language which can perpetuate a sense of hopelessness, or a belief that adverse childhood experiences automatically translate into negative outcomes, or that a trauma response permanently impedes a person’s ability to function.

Alison Morton, iHV CEO said:

“This timely and important publication by the ADPH and Frameworks UK helpfully presents guidance on ways to improve our work with infants, children, young people and parents facing adversity and trauma – how we communicate about social issues matters. At the iHV, we were delighted to be involved in the project which provides three clear recommendations that will be invaluable to practitioners, service leaders and policymakers on the importance of framing our messages carefully and the actions needed to create lasting change”.

Framing refers to the choices we make about what we say and how we say it. It’s what we emphasise, how we explain an issue and what we leave unsaid. This is an important aspect of public health as mindsets guide our thinking. Our task as public health professionals is to strengthen the mindsets that are helpful in achieving social change and avoid those that are unhelpful.

The recommendations, which have been endorsed by ADPH, The Health Foundation, School and Public Health Nurses Association, Institute of Health Visiting and NHS Scotland, provide practical guidance for improving understanding, as well as producing resources and literature, about adversity, trauma and resilience.

The skills that the FrameWorks UK team brought to the project were invaluable to its success. FrameWorks UK is a not-for-profit communications research organisation. They work with charities, public sector bodies and other mission-driven organisations to identify the best ways to build understanding and support for social progress and issues like health inequalities and child development.

The following recommendations from FrameWorks UK are designed to help professionals effectively reach the public, community and policymaker audiences by tapping into language and ideas that expand the public’s mental model of how adversity, trauma and resilience works and sparking a sense of collective responsibility for all children by:

Focusing on community strength, not widespread trauma or crisis.
Harnessing the power of three – talk about adversity, trauma and resilience together.
Talking about positive outcomes and collective solutions.

The report also recognises that further research is needed, as not enough research is being done in the UK in this area.

Download the ADPH publication

New resource for iHV members – GPP Working with birth trauma

During Infant Mental Health Awareness Week, iHV is delighted to share new Good Practice Points providing up-to-date evidence and references for our members:

NEW: GPP – Working with birth trauma

The iHV partnered with Dr Kirstie McKenzie-McHarg (Consultant Clinical Psychologist, South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust), Dr Camilla Rosan (Head of Early Years, Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families) and Professor Susan Ayers (Professor of Maternal and Child Health, School of Sciences, City University of London) to produce this new GGP.

The majority of women in the UK have birth experiences which are not traumatic, but for those that do a percentage may go on to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Birth trauma and PTSD can leave parents distressed and struggling with their mental health, their relationship with each other and their relationship with their infant.

It is vital that health visitors and others working with families in the perinatal period understand the potential impact of birth trauma, how to recognise it and what to do.

Go to GPP – Working with birth trauma

Please note that GPPs are available to iHV members only.

If you’re not a member, please join us to get access to all of our resources.

The iHV is a self-funding charity – we can only be successful in our mission to strengthen health visiting practice if the health visiting profession and its supporters join us on our journey. We rely on our membership to develop new resources for our members.

So do join us now!

New iHV resources to support families and children after traumatic events

The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) is delighted to announce the publication of new resources to help health visitors support families and children after traumatic events – such as car accidents, violence, illnesses and operations and also large-scale incidents such as those recently at Grenfell Tower and the terrorist attack at Manchester Arena. Developed together with the Mental Health Foundation, the new Good Practice Points provide evidence-based information for health visitors to help them to support families after a traumatic event, and the new Parent Tips provides information to parents to help them to support their children after such an event.

Traumatic events can be defined as direct or indirect experiences that put either a person or someone close to them at risk of serious harm or death. Examples of traumatic events are: road accidents; experiencing or witnessing violence; abuse; serious illnesses or invasive medical procedures; dog bites; human accidents such as fires. More rare traumatic events include: natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, serious floods or hurricanes; a terrorist attack; conditions of war.

Children will react in different ways to a traumatic event and how they react may also depend slightly on their age and where they are at in their development. However, whatever their age, they are likely to experience a range of changes in their thinking, emotions, behaviour and physical responses. For most children, these symptoms will go away on their own after a few weeks. However, for 10-30% of children who have experienced a traumatic event, they go on to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which can have adverse long-term effects on child development and adjustment.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, executive director of the Institute of Health Visiting, commented:

“With more than two thirds of children experiencing at least one traumatic event by the time they are 16 years old, we need to be able to provide good support to them and their families. Through mandated contacts with families, health visitors build good trusted relationships with all families and are, therefore, well placed to provide guidance and support at these difficult times. We very much hope that this new guidance will help both families and health visitors manage these enormously challenging circumstances with more knowledge of what will help.”

Dr Camilla Rosan, who was the lead author on the resources, and Clinical Psychologist at the Mental Health Foundation said:

“Experiencing a frightening event can understandably really shake up a family and it can be hard to know what to do for the best. Many families find it particularly challenging to know how to support younger children and infants who might not be able to clearly let you know, or even be aware, how the traumatic event might have affected them. We hope that these materials will help reassure professionals and families that changes are completely normal and, for most children, will not continue beyond a few weeks. However, for those that do not get better on their own, it reaffirms the importance of seeking professional mental health support and accessing evidence-based treatments.”

Download new Good Practice Points for Health Visitors: Supporting families following a traumatic event

Download new Parent Tips: Supporting children and young people after a traumatic event