Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (Research)

Department

APPLIED SOCIAL STUDIES

First Advisor

Prof. Margaret Linehan

Second Advisor

Dr. Judith Butler

Abstract

Trauma-informed care works on the assumption that individuals utilizing relevant services have experienced trauma (Palmer, 2020). The trauma-informed approach focuses on providing empathy and compassion to create healing relationships and ensure accessibility for all service users. This approach is aimed at understanding, identifying, and addressing trauma in organisations by making changes to practices, policies, and procedures (Champine et al., 2022). Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) (2014:10) states that ‘trauma results from an event, serie s of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or threatening and that has lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being.’ The main objective of this study was to investigate what it means to be a trauma-sensitive university and what steps need to be taken for Munster Technological University (MTU) to achieve this. The study focused on MTU, as a single case study, and identified the steps, policies, staff training, and funding required to make MTU trauma sensitive. For universities to provide an effective service to all students, staff must incorporate trauma- informed approaches to ensure services on campus are accessible for all. Cork City has committed to become the first trauma-sensitive city in Ireland. MTU has pledged support for this vision and aims to become the first trauma-sensitive university in Ireland. This study explored what it means to be a trauma-sensitive university. A qualitative research method was chosen for this study, with twenty in-depth, semi-structured interviews with staff members across the six campuses of MTU conducted. A significant finding of this research is that only three of twenty participants have received specific trauma training, even though they are often dealing with students in distress in their respective roles. The findings suggest that there is a caring culture in MTU, and staff ‘go above and beyond’ to help students on an individual level, however, training needs to be provided to all staff in the university to ensure staff have knowledge in how to deal with situations in a trauma-sensitive manner. Training on what is involved in becoming a trauma-sensitive organisation would be beneficial to staff as participants had a basic understanding of what trauma is and were enthusiastic about this approach being adopted by MTU once it is embedded in everyday practices and not a ‘tick the box' exercise. The recommendations from this study suggest that all staff complete mandatory trauma- awareness training, which together with a comprehensive review of MTU policies from a trauma-informed perspective, has the potential to enhance trauma-sensitivity towards students, leading to improved outcomes, including increased student success rates in third-level education. Furthermore, the results of this study may have wider implications for third-level institutions in Ireland and beyond, by promoting the adoption of trauma- focused and trauma-sensitive practices across the higher education sector.

Access Level

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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