Trauma-Informed Care & Mental Health Fundamentals Flashcards

A crisis client presents with racing thoughts, flight of ideas, and reports they haven't slept in 4 days but feel 'amazing.' These symptoms most suggest:

Answer: Stimulant intoxication or manic episode requiring urgent evaluation

Markedly decreased need for sleep combined with racing thoughts and euphoria are hallmark features of mania or stimulant intoxication, both requiring urgent assessment.

Historical trauma, as experienced by Indigenous communities, differs from individual trauma in that it:

Answer: Is transmitted across generations and embedded in collective cultural memory

Historical (intergenerational) trauma is passed through generations via epigenetic, psychological, and cultural pathways and affects communities as a whole.

Which of the following best describes the 'freeze' response (tonic immobility) in trauma, which differs from the fight-or-flight response?

Answer: An involuntary neurobiological shutdown resembling paralysis, often misunderstood as consent

Tonic immobility is an involuntary, evolutionarily conserved response to overwhelming threat that can render a person unable to move or speak, sometimes misread as passive agreement.

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is particularly useful in crisis intervention when a client:

Answer: Is ambivalent about making changes or accepting help

MI is designed to resolve ambivalence and elicit intrinsic motivation for change, making it most appropriate when a client is uncertain about accepting help or changing behavior.

When a crisis counselor uses the technique of 'titrated exposure' with a trauma survivor, they are:

Answer: Introducing trauma content gradually in small, manageable amounts to prevent overwhelm

Titrated exposure means dosing trauma work carefully so the client remains within their window of tolerance and is not flooded or overwhelmed.

A crisis specialist recognizes that a client's hostility and mistrust during intake is likely a trauma response. The most effective initial approach is to:

Answer: Meet the hostility with empathy, slow the pace, and prioritize safety without demanding disclosure

Trauma-informed practice reframes defensive behavior as a survival adaptation and responds with patience, empathy, and reduced demands to establish safety first.

In the context of trauma-informed care, 'cultural, historical, and gender issues' as a SAMHSA principle specifically requires practitioners to:

Answer: Recognize how cultural background, historical oppression, and gender identity shape trauma experience and recovery

This SAMHSA principle calls for active integration of cultural humility, acknowledgment of systemic oppression, and gender-responsive approaches into all trauma-informed services.