ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology for Clinical Settings
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1578821
Trauma-informed care on mental health wards: Staff and service user perspectives
Provisionally accepted
- 1Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom
- 2Barnet Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust, London, United Kingdom
- 3Whittington Hospital, London, England, United Kingdom
- 4Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, St Albans, United Kingdom
- 5East London NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This is the second study from a two-part evaluation into the impact of introducing Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) to a National Health Service (NHS) adult acute inpatient setting. The project consisted of two linked practices: Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF) Team Formulation, and a trauma-informed training programme for staff, combined with the provision of Psychological Stabilisation resources. The first paper (Nikopaschos et al., 2023) reported significant reductions in self-harm incidents and the use of restrictive practice on the wards. This paper aimed to elucidate experiences and mechanisms of change through a qualitative exploration of the impact of these new practices on staff and service users.Staff (N=7) and service users (N=8) took part in semi-structured interviews about their experiences of the TIC project, which were subjected to Thematic Analysis.Thematic analysis of staff interviews (N=7) identified three main themes: 'Changes in Knowledge and Understanding', 'Changes in Engagement and Practice' and 'Barriers and Constraints'. Thematic analysis of the service user interviews identified two main themes: 'The Benefits of Stabilisation Interventions' and 'Trauma-Informed Care Helped my Recovery'.Staff felt that the trauma-informed practices provided a meaningful conceptual framework for the better understanding of service users' difficulties, which led to increased compassion and a wider range of helpful responses towards service user distress. Service users reported 2 that they had gained new insights and skills, and been helped by their admission. The findings are considered in relation to the wider literature on TIC, and the benefits and challenges of introducing culture change in inpatient settings.
Keywords: Trauma-Informed Care (TIC), Power threat meaning framework (PTMF), Trauma, Stabilisation, Team formulation, inpatient
Received: 18 Feb 2025; Accepted: 10 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Nikopaschos, Gibbons, Bailey, Foxall, Giachero and Burrell. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Faye Nikopaschos, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.