Trauma-Informed Approaches and Community Engagement: Community Engaged Research (CEnR) and Programming for Public Health and Health Inequities

Abstract

In communities heavily affected by trauma, trauma-informed approaches (TIAs) are essential to minimize unintended consequences and harm associated with receiving clinical, social, and other support services. The visibility of traumatic events continues to increase. In turn, public health teams must build capacity and integrate TIAs into public health research and practice, particularly for communities managing multiple health inequities. Community-engaged approaches have become increasingly common in public health to address health inequity. Community-engaged research (CEnR) is a TIA that public health researchers use to serve traumatized individuals and communities meaningfully and respectfully. CEnR is often intended to address health disparities and inequities, and public health program developers can use similar engagement strategies. Community-engaged public health teams usually include partners from community, research, and other professions, and they often work in minoritized and vulnerable communities. In CEnR and program design, the team can use the principles of TIAs to guide the development and decision-making processes; they can also use feedback during the process to enhance the community benefit of the research and programs being offered. The team can benefit from training to understand and use TIAs to support their work. Finally, community-engaged public health teams can enhance CEnR by building upon the scientific literature about TIAs to extract strategies and practices to extend their impacts on the people they serve and their own organizations.