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Adult Education · Training · Workforce Development

Building a Healthier Workplace: A Guide to Trauma-Informed and Social Models of Well-Being

Jessica K. Camp, PhD (HCRE), Tracy S. Hall, PhD (HCRE), Kim Glenn (EDSI) · Feb 24, 2025

Over the past 10-15 years, there has been growing recognition of the impact trauma and toxic stress have on individuals and an increased understanding that experiencing trauma is more common than previously believed. This has led to a significant demand for EDSI and its Innovative Learning Solutions Team to create customized training interventions that enhance well-being in the workforce.

As the ILS Team started digging deeper into strategies that would address trauma in the workplace, it became clear that the strategies that were available, based on the medical Trauma-Informed Care model, were ineffective in the workplace. Many organizations, public and private, have invested in professional development, well-being efforts, and related human resource programs with little evidence of positive impact.

The Harvard Business Review (2024) reported findings from two studies that showed that employees that engaged in resilience training, mindfulness, or other well-being interventions were no better off than employees that had not participated[1]. They attribute this lack of impact to well-being programs being too focused on individuals, rather than systems. Additionally, the abundance of models, approaches, and theories have left many stakeholders feeling confused about the best approach to use and uncertain about how best to achieve their desired outcomes. 

[1] Harvard Business Review (October, 2024) Why Workplace Well-Being Programs Don’t Achieve Better Outcomes. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2024/10/why-workplace-well-being-programs-dont-achieve-better-outcomes.

Traumatic stress is on the rise nationally and since current interventions have proven ineffective in the workplace, employers may feel disheartened, discouraged, or disengaged from implementing interventions that could reduce the impact of stress or trauma on employees. 

This realization, that current interventions are not effective, and the fact that traumatic stress is rising, led the ILS Team to find a new, more effective way to help our clients promote well-being in the workplace. After searching extensively, we discovered that the Healing Centered Restorative Engagement approach, a social model, best aligns with the typical change or outcome employers seek in maximizing well-being in the workplace. In partnership with HCRE, EDSI has been reframing the way we look at supporting workplace well-being. 

So how do we know which model or combination of models is right for an organization and its people? Let’s take a look at each model in more detail. 

The Medical Model approach works well for clinicians, therapists, social workers, nurses, and doctors in mental health agencies, public health organizations, and hospitals. In these arenas, experts work 1:1 with patients and can continuously evaluate practices and policies to ensure that they are having a positive impact; they can bill insurance companies for the cost of providing expert services; and they have licensing requirements and supervisory oversight to meet and maintain professional ethical and legal requirements.

Medical Model

Medical Model Approaches 

A few of the more well-known Medical Model approaches include, but are not limited to, the following: 

Medical Model Strengths 

Evidence demonstrates that Medical Model strengths include improved health and mental health, self-care skills, emotional recognition and regulation, communication, personal coping skills and well-being practices.

Medical Model Drawbacks

  • A limited window of implementation; these approaches respond retroactively after someone experiences trauma or toxic stress, but don’t address preventing trauma to begin with.
  • Require highly trained experts who are not often widely available or are attainable only by the few who have privileged access in many communities.
  • Because experts lead treatment, they can often lack ethnic or cultural representation among caregivers.
  • While funding for individual treatment may exist, it only exists for individuals with high quality health care plans that include robust mental health coverage.

We have seen many well-meaning practitioners strive to adapt elements of TIC, for instance, in organizational and community settings without an understanding that Medical Model approaches are not designed to be implemented by individuals without expert credentials or outside of clinical settings. 

So, if the medical model is not designed to be effective in non-clinical environments, what can we do to promote workplace well-being?  Fortunately, there is another way!

Social Model Approaches strive to:

  • Broaden our understanding of the ways in which people experience harm from trauma and stress.
  • Include everyone as part of the solution to health and well-being.
  • Empower public and private organizations, communities, and society to recognize harm and heal from it.
  • Incorporate both evidence-based and experiential approaches to healing.
  • Move “upstream” to prioritize preventative, multi-level, and multi-dimensional interventions that can have a wider impact.

Social Model Approaches

Social Model Image

Social Model Strengths   

  • Increase creativity and innovation leading to higher productivity and problem-solving.  
  • Move from responsive and reactive to proactive.
  • Increase inclusivity resulting in people who are happier, healthier, and more connected to opportunity.  
  • Use collaboration to increase engagement to shared goals and objectives.
  • Can be far nimbler in response to disruption.  
  • Encourage a more resilient and robust organizational life.
  • Result in better organization- and community-wide communication.
  • Create higher rates of well-being.  

Social Model Drawbacks 

  • Not well known or widely practiced yet.
  • Struggle to acquire sufficient resources to support and maintain their implementation.
  • Often viewed as optional approaches since social skills and practices are rarely prioritized but are fundamental to achieving goals and outcomes.   
     
Ven Diagram

While many have become familiar with Medical Model approaches over the past decade or so, Social Model approaches are gaining popularity as they engage more proactively with a broader array of individuals and do not require lengthy credentialing. 

When choosing the appropriate model, be sure to connect with the model that is best for your organizational context and the goals you have for the work. If your goals are not diagnostic or clinical in nature, you may want to look at the Social Model approaches. 

If you are struggling to figure out what approach to use, please feel free to reach out to us. 

See the Model Approach in Action!

To learn more about how HCRE’s social model approach can help your organization watch this video.

For more information on HCRE, contact: admin@hcre.info or www.hcre.info

Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation/Detroit Youth at Work Testimonial

"As a result of the trauma and lasting effects that many of our program participants faced because of the pandemic, DESC felt that it was imperative to be more deliberate about incorporating healing and restorative practices into our service delivery model. We had an overwhelming desire to dig deeper and enhance the quality of interaction that we have with our youth program participants. The Healing Centered Restorative Engagement team not only helped us fulfill this desire, but their year-long training turned into so much more, sparking us to find the resources to retain them for a second year!

Click here to read the entire testimonial.

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