Implementing a trauma-informed model of care in a community acute mental health team

In this paper, we demonstrate the value of implementing a Trauma-Informed Model of Care in a Community Acute Mental Health Team by providing brief intensive treatment (comprising risk interventions, brief counselling, collaborative formulation and pharmacological treatment). The team utilised the Conversational Model (CM), a psychotherapeutic approach for complex trauma. Key features of the CM are described in this paper using a clinical case study. The addition of the Conversational Model approach to practice has enabled better understandings of consumers' capacities and ways to then engage, converse, and intervene. The implementation of this intervention has led to a greater sense of self-efficacy amongst clinicians, who can now articulate a clear counselling model of care.