Five years of Scottish Trauma Informed Leaders Training (STILT)
Many people in the Scotland will will experience trauma at some stage in their lives. Empirical evidence indicates that exposure to early trauma and adversity risks poorer physical, social and mental outcomes later in life.
NES Psychology has been facilitating Scottish Trauma Informed Leaders Training (STILT) for five years, supporting leaders across all public services in Scotland to design and maintain trauma informed services that can break the cycle between trauma and poorer outcomes.
Why trauma informed
The impact of traumatic stress (and our ways of managing it) takes a significant toll on our bodies, increasing our risk of developing non communicable diseases. And the psychological impact can make it very difficult to seek or engage with early interventions, screening and treatment. For example, women affected by childhood sexual abuse are at greater risk of developing risk factors for cervical cancer later in life, but less likely to attend for routine screening appointments, as these can trigger memories of prior traumatic experiences.
Recognition, and supporting leaders
This has led to an increased recognition in Scotland of the need to adapt our services. The STILT programme supports leaders to take a trauma informed approach to improve accessibility and positive outcomes for people affected by trauma.
Over the past year alone, 788 leaders from sectors all over Scotland ranging from dentistry and optometry to social work and housing have progressed through the training and 94% said that they would recommend this training to colleagues.
Leaders were interviewed two years on from their participation, their feedback has been included in Roadmap for Creating Trauma-Informed and Responsive Change
Here are some extracts from those testimonials:
“I could literally feel [the speakers’] passion and commitment come out of my laptop… I can honestly say, this was the best training event I've been to in a very, very long time."
“It is very content rich and is good to let it land and apply it to our own areas. The varied speakers offered such a varied overview and offered a great overview of what [Trauma-Informed Practice] really means.”
“It really was fantastic and extremely thought provoking - I have numerous notes to follow up on.”
If you are interested in booking onto a STILT session or learning more, please contact sally.jowett@nhs.scot.
March, 27 2024