Although trauma-informed care (TIC) is becoming increasingly recognised in social work and related professions as an effective approach for working with clients who have experienced trauma, it remains relatively unexplored in Slovenia and has therefore not been integrated into existing support systems. The aim of this thesis was to examine how employees of the non-governmental organisation DrogArt, which specialises in reducing the harmful effects of psychoactive substances among young people, implement TIC in practice. More specifically, I investigated the approaches employees use when working with service users in various DrogArt programmes, including how they understand and identify clients’ adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and traumatic childhood experiences, how they perceive and apply the principles of TIC, and how they understand the relationship between TIC and harm reduction. I began the theoretical part of my thesis by defining ACE, their consequences, traumatic childhood experiences, and possible trauma responses. I then introduced TIC and its six principles: safety; trustworthiness and transparency; empowerment, voice and choice; collaboration and mutuality; peer support; and cultural, historical and gender issues. Finally, I defined harm reduction and compared TIC with harm reduction. The thesis is empirical and qualitative. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews using interview guidelines as the research instrument. The research involved employees of DrogArt in Ljubljana who had been working for the organisation for at least one year prior to the interview. The non-probability convenience sample consisted of six employees. I analysed the collected data qualitatively through open, axial, and selective coding. The findings indicate that employees are aware of adverse childhood experiences but have a rather limited understanding of the concept. When defining trauma, they mainly emphasised its subjective aspect. They reported identifying service users’ traumatic responses based on their emotional, cognitive, behavioural, physical, and social states. Most employees confirmed the link between adverse childhood experiences, traumatic childhood experiences, and substance use, while highlighting the role of self-medication. In practice, employees appeared to implement the principles of TIC predominantly intuitively and according to their own experiences and expertise, rather than through formal knowledge of the approach. They view the harm reduction approach and TIC as intertwined and complementary; most employees agreed on the importance of preventing the aggravation of the client’s condition or avoiding the risk of retraumatisation, applying a trauma-informed lens, and creating a sense of safety. The results show that the organisation largely operates in accordance with TIC principles, while also highlighting the opportunity for a more systematic and formalised implementation of this approach in practice.
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