Marymound to pilot trauma-informed model

Marymound has been selected to be the first organization in Canada to pilot a trauma-informed organization model.

The model is called P.R.E.S.E.N.C.E and was created by trauma expert Sandra Bloom and her partner Sarah Yanosy. The model links guiding values that inform mental health professionals’ practice, such as: partnership and power; reverence and restoration; emotional wisdom and empathy; safety and social responsibility; embodiment and enactment; nature and nurture; culture and complexity; and emergence and evolution. Each set is associated with a knowledge base and universally applied tools designed to provide brain regulation skills, communication tools, group engagement tools, and complexity management skills.

The P.R.E.S.E.N.C.E trauma-informed care approach asks what happened to the patient instead of what is wrong with the patient. 

"It’s an organizational approach that ensures clients receive the care they need based on the impacts of their previous experiences. It helps people to understand what’s behind behaviours and conclude that clients aren’t acting out because they are ‘bad’, but rather, they are responding to a memory or past experience," Marymound’s newsletter stated.

Most children and youth at Marymound experience or have experienced trauma. Every day their staff addresses complex and challenging issues. The trauma-informed training will help Marymound best help the youth and families they work with towards recovery and healing. 

Through donations from the Catholic Health Corporation of Manitoba and anonymous donors, Marymound will undergo an 18-month organization-wide transformation and become a forerunner of trauma responsive and resilient service delivery. The organization will receive a set of tools to apply to clients and staff through a series of classrooms and practical training opportunities.

"We are overwhelmed with gratitude that Dr. Bloom has agreed to pilot her new trauma-informed model with Marymound," Nancy Parker, chief executive officer at 

Marymound, said. "In working with some of the most traumatized children in Manitoba, it is our commitment to provide the very best in client-centered trauma-informed care that includes meeting our clients’ needs in a safe, collaborative, and compassionate manner."