SSW Trauma-Informed Practice 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is a foundational principle of trauma-informed care as defined by SAMHSA?
- Safety (Correct answer)
- Accountability
- Exclusivity
- Confrontation
Correct answer: Safety
Safety is one of SAMHSA's six key principles of trauma-informed care, ensuring physical and emotional security for clients.
Question 2: Which of the following is NOT one of SAMHSA's six key principles of trauma-informed care?
- Trustworthiness and transparency
- Peer support
- Confrontation of denial (Correct answer)
- Empowerment
Correct answer: Confrontation of denial
Confrontation of denial is not a SAMHSA principle; the six principles include safety, trustworthiness/transparency, peer support, collaboration, empowerment, and cultural sensitivity.
Question 3: The landmark ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) study was originally conducted as a collaboration between:
- CDC and Kaiser Permanente (Correct answer)
- NIH and Harvard University
- APA and NASW
- SAMHSA and the Department of Education
Correct answer: CDC and Kaiser Permanente
The original ACEs study (1995–1997) was a collaboration between the CDC and Kaiser Permanente's Health Appraisal Clinic in San Diego.
Question 4: A student who exhibits hypervigilance, intrusive memories, and emotional numbing following a traumatic event may be displaying symptoms of:
- Oppositional Defiant Disorder
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Correct answer)
- Bipolar Disorder
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Correct answer: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Hypervigilance, intrusive memories, and emotional numbing are hallmark symptoms of PTSD as defined in the DSM-5.
Question 5: Which brain structure is primarily activated during the 'fight-or-flight' response triggered by trauma?
- Prefrontal cortex
- Hippocampus
- Amygdala (Correct answer)
- Cerebellum
Correct answer: Amygdala
The amygdala acts as the brain's alarm system, triggering the fight-or-flight stress response when a threat (real or perceived) is detected.
Question 6: In a trauma-informed school setting, staff are trained to shift their perspective by asking students:
- 'What is wrong with you?'
- 'Why are you behaving this way?'
- 'What happened to you?' (Correct answer)
- 'What do you want from us?'
Correct answer: 'What happened to you?'
The trauma-informed shift moves from 'What is wrong with you?' to 'What happened to you?', recognizing that behavior is often a response to trauma.
Question 7: A student has just experienced a house fire and lost all belongings. The most appropriate initial trauma-informed response by the school social worker is to:
- Refer the student to long-term therapy immediately
- Contact the family to discuss academic expectations
- Provide safety, stabilization, and connection to immediate resources (Correct answer)
- Document the incident and monitor the student's grades
Correct answer: Provide safety, stabilization, and connection to immediate resources
Immediately after trauma, the priority is safety, stabilization, and connecting families to resources — the foundation of trauma-informed acute response.
SSW Trauma-Informed Practice 1
What is a foundational principle of trauma-informed care as defined by SAMHSA?