‘Better care from a loving place’: An appreciative inquiry conversation to understand the impact of staff training using trauma informed care principles

This paper summarises an appreciative conversation which was held with a manager and support worker who were supporting a woman with moderate learning disabilities, physical disabilities and complex trauma. The conversation was held three months after the delivery of trauma informed care training by colleagues within our psychology team. Whilst this staff team continued to experience relational challenges within their work, their enthusiasm and empathy for the client during the training made us curious to learn more about the changes they had implemented following the training and where things were going well now. This conversation was experienced as moving, humbling and impactful, for the manager, key worker and psychologists who participated. As the staff team were clearly committed to improving their care and were determined to avoid the trauma of an additional placement breakdown, this enabled us to take the relational risk of a different kind of conversation, which drew upon the principles and values base of Appreciative Inquiry. It is hoped that sharing some of the themes of our conversation may illustrate why having a follow-up, appreciative conversation can maintain a hopeful focus and relationship with the psychology team, which goes beyond our usual evaluation methods. The conversation acknowledged and celebrated the knowledge and skills of the staff team, which required drawing upon their own resources, including self-awareness, music, humour and faith in order to continue to provide ongoing commitment and care within challenging circumstances. Easy to read summary ■ A psychologist spoke to the manager and a support worker about the changes they had made after they had some training from our psychology team. ■ This staff team were really interested in the training and planned to try some new things. This was exciting and we were keen to hear how they got on. ■ In this article, we explain why it is a good idea to go back to staff teams to ask them about what is going well, the changes they have made and how they carry on when it gets tough. ■ Asking about what is going well instead of what is going wrong is called an ‘Appreciative Inquiry’ conversation, or AI for short.