Fellows program leads to higher quality care
Oasis Youth Support Network Therapeutic Programs Manager Hayley Wilson is introducing a new model of care at the service as a result of her learning’s from her Fellows Program scholarship. (Photo supplied by Hayley Wilson)
A new best-practice model of care has been introduced at The Salvation Army’s Oasis Youth Support Network thanks to a Fellows Program scholarship.
Therapeutic Programs Manager at Oasis Youth Support Network, Hayley Wilson, says the impact of her Fellows Program scholarship has been “quite remarkable”.
“Since we have begun this journey Oasis has already seen the beginning of a paradigm shift, and I look forward to watching the network become more skilled in working with young people with complex trauma.”
The journey she’s describing began in 2012, when Oasis received government funding to introduce a new model of Trauma Informed Care over three years. At around the same time, Hayley Wilson was successful in her Fellows Program application for a study tour to the United States to attend a conference on the care model and observe it in practice.
“We spent a few weeks meeting with different services and going to youth services,” she says. “I now have ongoing contact with the experts I met there.
“It’s quite remarkable the impact that it’s had, and will continue to have.”
Trauma Informed Care is a therapeutic treatment model. It recognises that the majority of Oasis clients have experienced trauma and that their presenting behaviours are a result of this underlying trauma.
By working collaboratively with clients on key areas of safety, choice and safe coping skills, Trauma Informed Care workers establish strong trust-based relationships and help the client work towards stability and healing.
When she applied for Fellows Program funding, Hayley submitted that “to date, Oasis Youth Support Network programs and services have operated in the absence of one unifying therapeutic treatment framework and model of best practice.
“The introduction of the Trauma Informed Care model could dramatically improve the outcomes of clients who use our service.”
Since her Fellows Program study tour, Hayley has begun work on a strategic plan to bring the model of care into the Oasis program. Regular staff training days are being held and different aspects of the model have already been introduced.
Clients of the service will soon be surveyed for their views on the care given at Oasis from a Trauma Informed Care viewpoint. That same survey will be done again in 12 months time to assess the impact of the new program.
“We have excellent staff at Oasis Youth Support Network and since we started to look at Trauma Informed Care, everyone has come on board and is following that journey too,” says Hayley.
“Overall, the model has helped everyone gain a greater understanding of all the young people we work with. This has impacted on the way we think, act and react, and we have seen some really good outcomes from that.
“We still have some distance to cover but we are optimistic and confident that this model will deliver better client-based services”.
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