Page 18 - WilmU - Spring 2017

THE NEWS
New Undergraduate Certificate in Trauma-Informed Approaches
Bullying, disasters, terrorism, eating disorders, and family violence: What do these
phenomena have in common? All are types of trauma. Trauma is an event, a series of events, or a set of circumstances that are experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or life- threatening and can have lasting adverse effects on an individual’s functioning and mental, physical, social, emotional or spiritual well- being.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 70 percent of adults in the U.S. have experienced some type of traumatic event at least once in their lives.
Trauma-informed care is an approach to engaging people with histories of trauma that recognizes thepresenceoftraumasymptomsand acknowledges the role that trauma has played in their lives. So to better prepare Wilmington University
undergraduates to work with people who have experienced trauma and also meet growing market needs, Marilyn Siebold, an adjunct professor for the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, was instrumental in work- ing with colleagues to create an undergraduate certificate in Trauma- Informed Approaches. It launched this past summer and is one of WilmU’s most popular new certificates.
The Trauma-Informed Approaches certificate is valuable because it prepares people to work in fields in which they may encounter trauma and/or traumatized service recipients, says adjunct instructor Lauren Gillespie.
Working with traumatized people takes a certain mindset and understanding, without which people run the risk of further traumatizing the people they’re trying to help. Human service organizations are embracing the Sanctuary Model, a trauma-specific intervention for
clinical and organizational change which, at its core, promotes safety and recovery from adversity through the active creation of a trauma-informed community, and are becoming invested in trauma-informed care like never before. This certificate is perfectly timed to complement this relatively recent shift in the human services industry.
“The certificate is an added professional and educational bonus that says, ‘Hey I care about what happened to you,’” says WilmU student Dennis Broomell, who will soon complete the certificate.
“Because adversity is virtually a universal experience, a graduate will find the information applicable in any work setting, “ says Dr. Leslie Brower, project director of Trauma-Informed Care for the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, and a Psychology/Organizational Dynamics advisory board member at WilmU. “Certificate holders have the advantage of understanding the
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