Peer-reviewed article
Community views on ‘Can perinatal services safely identify Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents experiencing complex trauma?’
Catherine Chamberlain, Paul Gray, Helen Herrman, Fiona K. Mensah, Shawana Andrews et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study explores how perinatal services can safely identify Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents experiencing complex trauma without causing harm. Through workshops with 38 community participants, researchers identified six essential elements needed to make trauma assessment beneficial rather than harmful: holistic care, cultural safety, empowerment, person-centred approaches, trusting relationships, and skilled communication. The work recognizes that these communities have experienced intergenerational trauma from colonization and child removal policies, and that becoming a parent offers an opportunity for trauma recovery and preventing cycles of intergenerational harm.
Key points
- Six essential elements identified for safe trauma assessment: high-quality holistic care, cultural and emotional safety, empowerment and choice, flexible person-centred approaches, trusting relationships, and sensitive skilled communication
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents face risks from reactive child protection involvement that may compound trauma rather than help
- Limited culturally appropriate support services currently exist for identified parents experiencing complex trauma
- Intergenerational trauma in these communities stems from colonial violence, genocidal policies, forced child removal, and ongoing discrimination
- Community and family kinship systems are central to healthy child development in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures
Limitations
This is a qualitative study capturing community views and prerequisites for safe assessment rather than testing whether an actual assessment intervention works in practice. It does not measure outcomes for children or parents, or compare different assessment approaches.
Abstract
Abstract Family and extended kinship systems which nurture healthy, happy children are central to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Since colonisation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have been impacted by intergenerational cycles of trauma, stemming from colonial violence, genocidal policies and discrimination, including the forced removal of children from their families. Becoming a parent offers a unique life‐course opportunity for trauma recovery and preventing intergenerational trauma. However, identifying or ‘recognising’ complex trauma carries significant risk of harm for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents due to reactive prenatal child protection involvement potentially compounding experiences of trauma, and limited benefits due to lack of culturally appropriate support. The Aboriginal‐led participatory Healing the Past by Nurturing the Future project aims to co‐design safe, accessible and feasible perinatal awareness, recognition, assessment and support strategies for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents experiencing complex trauma. This paper presents views of 38 workshop participants to determine prerequisites for ensuring benefits outweigh risks of assessment to safely recognise parents experiencing complex trauma, consistent with screening criteria. Six essential elements were identified from thematic analysis: high‐quality holistic care; cultural, social and emotional safety; empowerment, choice and control; flexible person‐centred approaches; trusting relationships; and sensitive, skilled communication. Key Practitioner Messages The impacts of colonisation and rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait children in out‐of‐home care mean that there can be a myriad of issues facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents with regard to perinatal child protection involvement. The benefits must outweigh the risks of identifying parents experiencing complex trauma. Assessment must be offered within foundations of supportive relationships and holistic care in culturally‐safe, empowering settings, where choices are respected and skilled communication approaches are used.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Co-designed perinatal awareness, recognition, assessment and support strategies for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents experiencing complex trauma, incorporating six essential elements: high-quality holistic care, cultural/social/emotional safety, empowerment/choice/control, flexible pers
- Population
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents in perinatal settings; study included 38 workshop participants from these communities