Perspectives on Recovering from Homelessness Within a Transitional Housing Shelter: Utilizing a Trauma Focused Framework
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2024
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Experiences of trauma and its widespread effects are deeply embedded within the homeless population. While current initiatives to reduce homelessness, such as shelters, primarily address the logistical challenges of securing housing, they often overlook the critical role of trauma in the healing and recovery process essential to achieve and maintain housing. This phenomenological study explores how healing and recovery are conceptualized by individuals receiving services at a transitional housing shelter in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, and examines how it aligns with Judith Herman’s trauma recovery framework (safety and stability, remembrance and mourning, and reconnecting to others and daily life). Findings indicate that healing and recovery are viewed as multifaceted processes requiring interventions across the individual, interpersonal, and organizational levels of the ecological model. Participants identified five key themes in their conceptualizations of healing: time and safe spaces, values-based motivations, social support, spirituality and cultural coping mechanisms, and personal development. Additionally, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Trauma-Informed Care guidelines were applied during the qualitative data analysis to understand healing and recovery at the organizational level. Three implications for program development surfaced: advocating for increased staffing and incentivizing retention to better support shelter staff, integrating trauma-informed care into service provision and program curriculums, and tailoring lengths of stay to align with individual needs and circumstances. These components align closely with existing models of trauma recovery and trauma-informed care and provide programmatic and policy-level interventions for organizations aiming to support individuals in achieving and maintaining stable housing.
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Psychology, Homelessness, Program Development, Trauma-Informed Care
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100 pages
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