The Limits of AI in Trauma-Informed Care
Going through this course allows for deep reflections about trauma-informed care and its focus on human connection, trust, and emotional concerns. Ironically, the first time I thought about AI in correctional mental health care, the paradigm of trauma-informed care did not cross my mind. I saw the benefits to the technology’s ability to provide care demand, to locate and assess people in need, and to provide help where there aren’t mental health care workers. However, in the most extreme and troubling of care, AI can render itself to be the most effective to the most needy.
The more I am able to reflect on trauma, the more I realize the level of healing necessary for the work that is most needed is extremely labor intensive. Trauma is the most extreme form of emotional and mental lockdown. After a trauma, people can’t be expected to be able to Trust and keep the most basic form of safety. Trauma seeks an emotional healing. Where AI is able to learn, it is not able to be the healer and be the most humane of care. Loss of AI is the most extreme level of compassion. AI makes a true loss of the most basic loss of care; people.
The constant monitoring through AI is something I worry most about trauma healing. The AI constant monitoring invites an increase in trauma. In reward based settings of our correctional system, the monitoring is designed to create a lack of control; in the most extreme of the work to regain safety and Trust of the most basic. AI is not a healer, it is an extreme loss of safety. The work to regain Trust and safety from a trauma system should always be worked from the level of the most basic humane care. AI is not that.
I think trauma-informed care is where AI can have a positive impact as long as it’s used responsibly. AI can support professionals by locating individuals requiring support and enhancing the availability of care. Improving accessibility to care shouldn’t be at the expense of the many human relationships involved in treating and caring for the mental well-being of a person. Trauma-informed care is not only about the care itself; it’s about creating a space of safety, trust, and empathy through real connections and human-based relationships. I have also found comfort in the balance of innovation and simplicity. Healing from trauma is a very personal experience, and for professionals, real recovery involvement should be the core of their understanding. AI provides a new way of viewing care, but it is not a replacement for human-based relationships.
References
The Body Keeps the Score
van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2024). Trauma-informed approaches and programs. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Trauma and Recovery
Herman, J. L. (2015). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence—From domestic abuse to political terror (Rev. ed.). Basic Books.