HLTASEW003 — Provide support to clients affected by loss, grief or trauma

Elements & performance criteria

Performance evidence

• provide support to three different Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander clients affected by loss, grief or trauma
• for each of the three clients, and according to their individual needs:
• source credible consumer based education resources from loss, grief or trauma support services and clearly explain these to the client
• explain different types of self-care coping strategies
• source information about loss, grief or trauma support services, explain their key features and advise the client how to access services
• plan and organise continuity of support in consultation with the client and multidisciplinary team
• document, in client records, accurate details of each client contact including details of services, information and referrals provided.

Knowledge evidence

• organisational policies and procedures for client record keeping
• distinctions between providing counselling and primary support to those affected by loss, grief and trauma
• techniques used to communicate with clients and families dealing with the emotional impacts of loss, grief and trauma
• the meaning of the following principles of trauma informed care, and how these can be practically implemented when providing support to clients:
• safety
• trustworthiness
• choice
• collaboration
• empowerment
• concepts of loss and grief at the individual, family and community level:
• types of loss:
• death of loved ones
• loss of culture
• loss of job
• loss of contact with loved ones
• loss of security
• illness, physical injury and disability, of self and loved ones
• the spectrum of loss:
• primary loss
• secondary loss
• cumulative loss
• integration of loss
• features and expressions of grief and how these may vary:
• complex grief
• disenfranchised grief
• Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander views on death, dying, grief and bereavement compared to views in non-Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities
• stages of the grief process
• trauma:
• how trauma is defined, including complex trauma
• impacts of inter-generational and trans-generational trauma on Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander individuals, families and communities around loss of:
• identity
• land
• culture
• language
• ceremony
• connections with family through forced removal and separation
• ways that individuals cope with the impacts of trauma
• the potential for and causes of re-traumatisation, including accessing and receiving services
• historical factors of colonisation and institutional racism and their impacts on Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people
• local cultural protocols and taboos that relate to loss, grief and trauma, including those related to gender
• own values and attitudes around loss, grief and trauma and how these may impact on work with others
• how loss, grief and bereavement can impact on broader social and emotional health and wellbeing
• for people at risk of self-harm and suicide:
• common risk factors
• common verbal and non-verbal behavioural indicators
• types of rapid response assessment questions and actions that can be used to triage
• emergency referral pathways
• indicators of imminent risk to the safety of client or other people and protocols for responding to these situations
• plain language explanations of client self-care practices:
• techniques for monitoring and managing distress
• stress management techniques and activities
• how to seek assistance and engage with own support networks including family, friends and community groups
• support services available in the community, state or territory:
• services to support clients who are caring for family members with life-limiting illness or who are at the end stages of life
• for those experiencing loss, grief and bereavement
• trauma services, particularly specialist services for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people
• how to access information about the types of services and consumer based education resources they provide
• how clients can access services and the role of health workers and practitioners in facilitating access
• the importance of current and credible consumer based education resources about loss, grief and trauma in the client decision-making process to access support
• the importance of continuity of support for clients affected by loss, grief or trauma
• how to use client information systems to follow-up clients for care.

Foundation skills

• Reading skills: to:  interpret detailed and sometimes unfamiliar plain language consumer based education resources.
• Writing skills: to:  use fundamental sentence structure, health terminology and abbreviations to complete forms and reports that require factual and subjective information.
• Oral communication skills: to:  use language and terms sensitive to clients’ values and emotional state  ask open and closed probe questions and actively listen to elicit information and preferences from clients.
• Learning skills: to:  use information provided in credible evidence based consumer resources to update and extend knowledge of support services for loss, grief and trauma.
• Initiative and enterprise skills: to:  source information that meets the specific needs of clients and families.

Unit content sourced from training.gov.au — © Commonwealth of Australia, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Auditori is not affiliated with the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations.

Questions about assessing HLTASEW003