Organizational Safety

Trauma-Informed Crisis Intervention is an approach that acknowledges how past trauma can influence an individual’s response during a crisis. It prioritizes safety, trust, and empowerment, recognizing that a person’s current behavior may be influenced by previous traumatic experiences. This approach is essential in a variety of professional settings, including health and mental health care services, personal support work, crisis response, and emergency services.

A trauma-informed approach can be put into practice in any type of organization and is very different from trauma-specific interventions or treatments, that are designed to address the consequences of trauma and to facilitate healing.

Trauma-informed crisis intervention integrates principles of trauma-informed care into immediate crisis response. It recognizes that individuals in crisis may have histories of trauma that shape their reactions and needs. The approach emphasizes sensitivity, collaboration, and individualized support.

The Trauma Informed Crisis Intervention training encourages participants to move beyond surface behaviors — rather than viewing a client as hostile or aggressive, participants are guided to shift their perspective — seeing the individual as possibly frightened, defensive, or feeling vulnerable. This perceptual realignment allows staff to more accurately interpret behavior and respond with greater empathy and efficacy.

This training focuses on developing personal awareness, effective preparation, and practical skills; such as communication strategies, scripted responses for exiting escalating situations, and team-based intervention techniques. The goal is to equip staff with the confident, competence, and trauma-informed mindset to respond effectively and compassionately during crisis situations.

Personal self-protection techniques provide staff with the skills needed to maintain safety in situations that may escalate into physical contact. While a trauma-informed approach emphasizes prevention, de-escalation, and non-restrictive strategies, there are times when unwanted physical contact is unavoidable. This training offers practical, rehearsed methods for safely disengaging from physical interactions without causing harm. These techniques focus on maintaining control, reducing risk, and upholding the dignity of all involved.

This content is ideally delivered in combination with SHSC’s Trauma-Informed Crisis Intervention and/or Safe Strategies for Community Workers trainings. Together, these offerings provide a comprehensive framework that supports prevention, early intervention, and safe, ethical response in high-stress situations.

As the landscape of service delivery continues to evolve, more professionals are engaging with clients in dynamic, non-traditional environments — ranging from private homes and public spaces to streets, shelters and encampments. These settings can present unpredictable challenges and heightened safety risks for community workers.

Despite having access to general crisis intervention and violence prevention training, many frontline staff report that such programs do not sufficiently address the unique realities of working in the community. Factors such as isolation, limited immediate support, and the lack of environmental control require a different set of skills and strategies.

The Safe Strategies for Community Workers training was developed to respond directly to this gap. It offers practical, situation-specific guidance to enhance personal safety while empowering workers to make informed, confident decisions in the field. By focusing on risk reduction, situational awareness, de-escalation, and safe exit strategies, the training helps to create a safer, more supportive environment for both staff and the individuals they serve.

Our approach builds on existing best practice, ensures legal compliance and enables staff and organizations to create strong platforms to identify and reduce workplace safety risks.