Poster title: Trauma-Informed Care Training on Staff Knowledge, Attitudes, and Competency: Effectiveness of a Pre-Post Study
Author name: Kari Yang
Contant email: tiy29@pitt.edu
Author title and affiliation: MSW Candidate, School of Social Work, University of Pittsburgh
Abstract/Brief description: Traumatic encounters occur relatively frequently among the general population, affecting Deaf populations at an increased risk. With pervasive effects on the determinants of health, trauma-informed care practices must be employed throughout clinical and residential facilities. However, these client-centered services often lack sufficient training on trauma-informed practices, reinforcing the cycle of retraumatization. This study explores the effect of trauma-informed care training on staff knowledge, attitudes, and competency at Pressley Ridge School for the Deaf, specifically at the residential setting. Utilizing a pre-post design with quantitative and qualitative measures baseline and immediate after two brief trauma-related training videos, a total of 17 participants completed the baseline self-report questionnaire. However, four were lost to attrition. The results indicated a significant improvement in residential staff knowledge among all position roles and themes identified a necessity for additional training. While knowledge increased, there were no differences across attitudes and competency dimensions. Limitations revealed these outcomes may have been due to a small sample size, attrition bias, lack of a validated measurement tool, self-report bias, and inaccessible training videos. However, despite these limitations, these findings provide profound insights for the agency to advocate for more extensive and in-depth training related to direct practice and potentially to conduct further research.