Providing support following traumatic experiences
Suggestion for implementing the strategy ‘Support emotional wellbeing and positive mental health’
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Understanding trauma
Understanding trauma
Children are faced with many adverse events during childhood.
Build your understanding of why some events result in trauma.
Trauma results from an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as harmful or threatening and has lasting adverse effects on the individual’s physical, social, emotional, or spiritual wellbeing (Liberty, 2017).
It is important to recognise that most children recover well from traumatic experiences if they have access to:
- safe, inclusive environments
- responsive relationships that support understanding and problem solving around difficult times.
How to explain the stress response to children
How to explain the stress response to children
No captions or transcript
Recognise responses to trauma
Recognise responses to trauma
Children and young people may:
- withdraw
- become upset
- seem anxious
- be preoccupied with the event in their play or drawing
- have problems sleeping
- have stomach aches or headaches.
Select effective approaches
Select effective approaches
Approaches that can help:
- Reassure students that the event is over and they are safe.
- Emphasise that feeling upset or afraid is normal, and that asking questions and telling you how they are feeling will help, that with time they will feel better.
- Be understanding – students will present a range of emotions and behaviours that will pass over the coming weeks.
- Give extra attention.
- Remember you are a role model. Students will look to their parents and teachers to both feel safe and to know how to respond and take care of themselves and others.
- Keep routines – maintain a predictable classroom routine as this will reinforce feelings of safety.
Approaches to avoid:
- Repeatedly talking about the details of a traumatic event.
- Saying “don’t worry” or “don’t be upset”.
- Being over-protective.
Source: Ministry of Health | Manatū Hauora (opens in a new tab/window)
Knowing when to contact whānau
Knowing when to contact whānau
Contact the child’s whānau when you notice the following:
- a child’s distress is consistently escalating
- the child is displaying worrying behaviours such as extreme withdrawal, or a terror that you cannot comfort them from
- the effects are continuing to have an impact on the child and you feel that things are not improving, or not improving fast enough.
If whānau ask you for advice, recommend the following:
- contact a local GP
- call or text 1737 (free, anytime, 24/7) – to talk with a trained counsellor.
Useful resources
Useful resources
Trauma-informed education part 1: The impact of trauma on learners
Slide deck presentation from Dr. Chris Bowden, Victoria University Wellington.
Publisher: Victoria University of Wellington
Mental health advice for coping after a traumatic event
Multilingual resources developed to aid coping after a distressing event.
Publisher: Ministry of Health | Manatū Hauora
Next steps
More suggestions for implementing the strategy “Support emotional wellbeing and positive mental health”:
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Anticipate, monitor, and plan for responding to child stress
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Teach how to recognise emotions and options for expressing feelings
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Support emotional wellbeing and positive mental healthShow suggestions for Support emotional wellbeing and positive mental health
- Anticipate, monitor, and plan for responding to child stress
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- Providing support following traumatic experiences
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