Promotion of transprofessional trauma-informed approach 2024

The project aims to strengthen the competence of social services and physiotherapy students and teachers in trauma-informed practice. A trauma-informed approach helps professionals understand how traumatic experiences affect people’s well-being, functioning, and everyday lives, and how they can promote safety, inclusion, resilience, and recovery.

The project brings together Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK), Kauno kolegija in Lithuania, and University College Copenhagen in Denmark. The partners share a common interest in developing emerging competence areas in social and health care education and strengthening interdisciplinary collaboration.

During the mobility project, students will participate in international mobility activities and work in multidisciplinary and multicultural teams. The themes include trauma-informed work with families and communities, nature-based and body-oriented approaches to supporting young people’s well-being, and promoting post-traumatic growth among people with refugee backgrounds.

Students will develop practical solutions in collaboration with community and professional partners while deepening their understanding of trauma, recovery, and well-being promotion. At the same time, they will strengthen international cooperation, interdisciplinary teamwork, and problem-solving skills that are increasingly important in contemporary working life.

The project will generate new pedagogical models and strengthen international cooperation that will continue to support educational development beyond the project period. In the long term, the project aims to build capacity for more holistic, inclusive, and effective social and health care services and to strengthen professionals’ ability to engage safely and respectfully with people from diverse life situations and backgrounds.

Traumatic experiences are common, and their effects can have a long-term impact on people’s well-being, health, functioning, and social participation. Social and health care professionals increasingly encounter individuals whose life situations involve various adverse or traumatic experiences. At the same time, there is a growing need for new competencies in professional education to help future practitioners recognize the effects of trauma and promote safety, resilience, recovery, and inclusion.

In recent years, trauma-informed practice has gained increasing attention both in Finland and internationally. However, it has not yet been systematically integrated into social services or physiotherapy education. Furthermore, collaboration between different professional fields in developing trauma-informed practices remains limited.

The project is based on a shared need to strengthen the competence of students and educators and to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration in Finland, Lithuania, and Denmark. The partner institutions have extensive experience in international cooperation and share the view that future social and health care services require holistic, collaborative, and evidence-informed approaches.

The project responds to this need by providing students and staff with opportunities for international learning, knowledge exchange, and practice-based development. It aims to strengthen participants’ capacity to engage with people from diverse life situations in a safe, respectful, and strengths-based manner, while promoting post-traumatic growth, recovery, and well-being.

The project aims to strengthen the competence of social services and physiotherapy students and educators in trauma-informed practice and its application in diverse client and community settings. A key objective is to increase understanding of the impact of trauma on well-being, functioning, and social participation, while developing the capacity to promote safety, recovery, resilience, empowerment, and post-traumatic growth.

The project fosters interdisciplinary collaboration between social services and physiotherapy and strengthens students’ ability to work in multidisciplinary and multicultural environments. Through international mobility activities and intensive courses, participants will learn to examine well-being from different professional perspectives and develop solutions that respond to the needs of service users in cooperation with community and professional partners.

In addition, the project aims to enhance higher education by developing new pedagogical models and international collaboration practices. It strengthens cooperation between the partner institutions and creates a foundation for future educational, research, and development projects.

In the long term, the project seeks to build capacity for more effective, inclusive, and trauma-informed social and health care services and to educate professionals who can address complex societal well-being challenges through holistic and collaborative approaches.

The project is expected to strengthen participants’ competence in trauma-informed approaches in social services and physiotherapy through international exchange and shared learning. It will support the development of professional expertise, increase understanding of Nordic practices, and promote future collaboration between the partner higher education institutions.

In addition, the project is expected to contribute to the development of teaching and student learning within the participating study programmes by introducing new perspectives, pedagogical approaches, learning materials, and forms of collaboration.

Nordplus

Muu ulkomainen