Trauma informed co-production: Collaborating and combining expertise to improve access to primary care with women with complex needs
Authors: McGeown Helen , Potter Lucy , Stone Tracey , Swede Julie , Cramer Helen ,   Bridging Gaps group, Horwood Jeremy , Carvalho Maria , Connell Florrie , Feder Gene , Farr Michelle 
Published: April 2023

Introduction

Health, social care, charitable and justice sectors are increasingly recognising the need for trauma-informed services that seek to recognise signs of trauma, provide appropriate paths to recovery, and ensure that services enable people rather than re-traumatise. Foundational to the development of trauma-informed services is collaboration with people with lived experience of trauma. Co-production principles may provide a useful framework for this collaboration, due to their emphasis on lived experience, and intent to address power imbalances and promote equity. This article aims to examine trauma-informed and co-production principles to consider the extent to which they overlap and explore how to tailor co-production approaches to support people who have experienced trauma.

Methods

Bridging Gaps is a collaboration between women who have experienced complex trauma, a charity that supports them, primary care clinicians and health researchers to improve access to trauma-informed primary care. Using co-production principles, we aimed to ensure that women who have experienced trauma were key decision-makers throughout the project. Through reflective notes (n=19), observations of meetings (n=3), interviews with people involved in the project (n=9) and reflective group discussions on our experiences, we share learning, successes and failures. Data analysis followed a framework approach, using trauma-informed principles.

Results

Co-production processes can require adaptation when working with people who have experienced trauma. We emphasise the need for close partnership working, flexibility, and transparency around power dynamics, paying particular attention to aspects of power that are less readily visible. Sharing experiences can re-trigger trauma. People conducting co-production work need to understand trauma and how this may impact upon an individual’s sense of psychological safety. Long-term funding is vital to enable projects to have enough time for establishment of trust and delivery of tangible results.

Conclusions

Co-production principles are highly suitable when developing trauma-informed services. Greater consideration needs to be given as to whether and how people share lived experiences, the need for safe spaces, honesty and humility, difficult dynamics between empowerment and safety, and whether and when blurring boundaries may be helpful. Our findings have applicability to policy-making, funding and service provision to enable co-production processes to become more trauma-informed.

Public Contribution

Bridging Gaps was started by a group of women who have experienced complex trauma, including addiction, homelessness, mental health problems, sexual exploitation, domestic and sexual violence, and poverty, with a GP who provides healthcare to this population, alongside a support worker from the charity, One25, a charity that supports some of the most marginalised women in Bristol to heal and thrive. More GPs and healthcare researchers joined the group and they have been meeting fortnightly for a period of four years with the aim of improving access to trauma-informed primary care. The group uses co-production principles to work together, and we aim to ensure that women who have experienced trauma are key decision-makers throughout our work together. This article is a summary of our learning, informed by discussion, observations and interviews with members of the group.