电子游戏软件社会工作学院(Boston College School of Social Work)发起了一项多方面的倡议，组织者表示，这将使该学院在解决个人创伤影响方面成为全国思想领袖, families, and communities.
Begun in 2019, the Trauma Integration Initiative incorporates teaching, fieldwork, 并电子游戏正规平台一个全面的项目，不仅让BCSSW的学生准备好帮助他们的客户处理创伤, but to guard themselves against its effects. Keeping with BC’s Jesuit, Catholic tradition, TII还提出了一个形成要素，引导学生思考创伤信息社会工作的挑战.
At a time when, according to studies, 85%的社会工作者经常治疗有创伤的客户, 七分之一的社工自己也患有创伤后应激障碍, TII的组织者说，社会工作教育需要一个完全整合的创伤信息视角. The TII is one of the school’s strategic priorities, an indication of its level of commitment to the initiative.
Scott Easton
To understand the necessity for the initiative, BCSSW Professor and TII co-founder Scott Easton said, 了解创伤是什么以及它如何影响生活是很重要的.
“在某种程度上，‘创伤’已经成为流行文化中的一个流行词，”他说. “创伤的工作定义是对身体或情感造成伤害的事件或状况, causes significant distress and suffering, and overwhelms individuals, families, or community coping resources.
“Trauma can occur from a single event, a series of events, or an ongoing, pervasive, environmental cause—living in a home where abuse takes place, 或者在一个长期贫困或种族不平等的社区. What’s more, two people can experience trauma in different ways; it may be apparent in one person, hardly at all in another.
“因此，社会工作者有责任掌握识别创伤的必要技能, as well as the extent and cause of the trauma. 我们相信TII将为BCSSW学生提供他们需要的工具, and thus be able to effectively intervene.”
Susan Coleman
There are other, more personal benefits for students in a trauma-informed program, said BCSSW Assistant Dean for Field Practice Susan Coleman. “社会工作者扮演帮助的角色有很多原因, 但对许多人来说，这是因为他们自己经历过创伤或损失, and they want to ‘give back’ in some way. In fact, 社会工作者有不良童年经历的可能性是普通人的两到三倍, 因此，虽然这让他们有很强的同理心来帮助其他有创伤的人, it means they may be vulnerable to reliving their past trauma.
“但任何社会工作者，不管是不是ACE，都会发现自己在工作中患上了继发性创伤. Hopefully, they are able to find ways to manage the stress. With the TII, we’re saying, 让我们现在就给这些学生提供处理创伤的方法, even as they’re learning to become social workers.’”
Kathleen Flinton
Assistant Professor of the Practice Kathleen Flinton, who joined the BCSSW faculty last July, has an extensive, 例如，她在构建BCSSW课程以反映TII目标时所采用的长达二十年的创伤治疗背景, 将与创伤相关的内容整合到现有课程中，或创建面向创伤知情实践的新课程. 她指出，创伤课程固定在健康和心理健康系，但通过BCSSW创伤证书课程向所有学生开放, and covers both clinical and macro specializations, as well as BCSSW’s other fields of practice, such as Children, Youth, and Families, Global Practice, or Older Adults and Families.
根据弗林顿的说法，自我照顾是课程的一个组成部分. “We talk about the importance of being aware of your health, how you respond to work-related experiences, the things you can do to stay present. We realize some students have known trauma in their own lives, so we walk a fine line: We don’t try to elicit their experiences, but we let them know we understand.”
As part of the TII, 科尔曼和她的同事们利用创伤知情的观点重新设计了匹配, advising, and supervision of the approximately 500 students who are in M.S.W. field placements every year. This entails, she said, 要意识到学生在实地考察中可能会带来什么, and helping them cope as necessary.” But BCSSW’s vision of field placement, and its role in social work education, has a Jesuit orientation, she added.
“社会工作不仅仅是关于专业技能:你把你的‘自我’带进了工作. That’s at the heart of formation, 就像[神学教授]迈克尔·海姆斯要求学生在思考他们的职业时思考的问题一样:什么给我带来快乐? What am I good at? What does the world need me to be? 我们要求学生不仅要考虑他们的天赋，还要考虑他们的整个自我, and how it may shape their vocation as a social worker.”
Easton oversees the TII’s research component, 这包括寻找或澄清教师之间的联系，他们的兴趣领域与创伤有关, such as neuroscience, immigration issues, or parenthood. TII还打算促进教师在学术出版物方面的合作, development of research proposals, and other activities. Last fall, BCSSW faculty, students, 和校友们在社会工作教育委员会年度项目会议上发表了关于创伤对社会工作者影响的电子游戏正规平台.
Sally Doherty, a Needham, Mass., native in her final year at BCSSW, 她赞赏TII使学生认识到“创伤是多层次的，具有多方面的影响”,，并发现强调“创伤生态”——结构性暴力和压迫的影响以及健康的社会决定因素——是有用的.
“我有信心，我已经准备好应对创伤可能对我个人健康造成的任何潜在影响,” said Doherty. “TII为我提供了工具，以确保我在从事这项专注于创伤的工作时练习自我照顾.”
Hilary Dobel, also in her final year, 觉得TII帮助她理解了创伤对精神和身体的影响, 以及与可能正在遭受这些影响的人谈论这些影响的语言."了解造成创伤的社会经济条件和不公正"而不是在真空中观察一个人的痛苦"也是一种宝贵的经历.
“I learned that, as a clinician, 仅仅是听到别人的创伤就会对你自己的心理健康产生深远的影响,” said Dobel. “你必须意识到这种可能性，才能照顾好自己，才能继续做这项工作. TII对我在智力和情感上理解这些过程是如何发生的也有不可思议的帮助——这些过程对我和我的同事来说是有风险的, and what recovery can look like.”
Sean Smith | University Communications | March 2021