Trauma-informed physical healthcare for women in secure inpatient services

There is increasing recognition of the need for trauma-informed care to be incorporated into physical healthcare provision, both within general community and specialist forensic settings. Physical healthcare examinations and procedures can be experienced as traumatising or retraumatising, which can create barriers to people feeling able to safely access and engage with services, particularly when involving parts of the body, positions, or language that may be associated with past traumatic experiences. This chapter highlights the need for trauma-informed physical healthcare universally and especially within forensic settings; discusses specific forensic challenges and dilemmas around physical healthcare; reviews further considerations for women and gender non-conforming people; and outlines general principles for trauma-informed physical healthcare. The authors describe a case illustration of developing trauma-informed provision around cervical screening within a high-secure forensic inpatient service for women and propose a process model of trauma-informed physical health interventions, which can be applied within other services and settings.