Let’s Talk: Promoting Staff Wellbeing Through Trauma-Informed Self and Community Care

Supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and those they love is meaningful, beautiful, and important work. You get to play a role in the magic of humans being human together. It can also be emotionally demanding. Staff in disability service organizations often navigate complex situations, high expectations, and limited resources. Direct support professionals (DSPs) and supervisors care deeply about the people they support, which can make workplace stress even harder to manage.

Leaders play a critical role in creating workplaces where staff can do their best work without sacrificing their wellbeing. One helpful framework for this work is trauma-informed care (TIC). Trauma-informed approaches recognize that stress and adversity affect everyone in a system, including the people receiving services, families, and staff. These approaches aim to create environments that support safety, dignity, connection, and healing for everyone.

This month’s Let’s Talk webinar will discuss practical ways leaders can promote staff wellbeing using trauma-informed self-care and community care strategies.

The webinar is a companion to the most recent International Journal for Direct Support Professionals issue written by Dr. Amanda Rich, researcher and founder of Open Roads Inclusive Community Consulting. Join Amanda as she discusses her article,  Promoting Staff Wellbeing Through Trauma-Informed Self and Community Care, with NADSP’s John Raffaele on Thursday April 30.

ASL interpretation and closed captions will be available during the webinar. To review previous issues of The International Journal for Direct Support Professionals, click here.