Day 3- Trauma-Responsive Design: Reimagining the Future of Design Now

— Good Morning! I want you to take stock during this stock on:
  • What is resonating?
  • What questions are coming up?
  • How your understanding is shifting?

 

— I study trauma and it’s something I think and write about

 

—  In terms of design though, but trauma is not included in most discussions
  • Trauma is nuanced, and not a phenomenon that comes from short, sharp shocks
  • It’s not PTSD, but rather specific events on the mind and body
    • How we relate to these event, is what separates it from stress
—The effects of the mass trauma from the pandemic will be on us for decades, so how do we design going forward?
  • For context, a working definition of trauma is a rupture in meaning making, where a gap rises between your internal orientation systems and the traumatic event
— Within the context of civic design, its important to acknowledge we are in a sea of overwhelm, indirectly if not directly

 

 

— I have been a social worker long before being a designer

 

— I study and practice trauma in context of design, and practice being a trauma responsive designer

 

 

— I’ll have a brief pause here for a land acknowledgment
  • I work in Urbana, Illinois, and I have the responsibility to acknowledge the context where my work takes place
  • As many designers are descendants of settlers, immigrants, and we need to understand roles we play
— So how can we become trauma informed?

 

— How can we move from being trauma sensitive, to building trauma awareness, to becoming trauma responsive?

 

— Trauma river metaphor resonates for me, as it provides a framework  for moving form trauma sensitive to being trauma responsive in all that we design
  • So I’ll share principles, approaches and inspiration on how to move down this river

 

— My own approach has come from understanding who I am, with the core values that have been carefully crafted with deep work and intention

 

— I then combine core values with purposeful design  as being just, ethical, and critical conscious

 

— They come together with my experience as being a practicing helper in higher-ed, federal government, and spear heading HCD
  • My role as life-long learner has been a continuous my thread in the work
— As an LCSW, I need to take part in continuing education to maintain my license and keep aware of best practices
  • Social works inform design, similar to how design informs social work
  • To that end, I’m working through an MFA on trauma informed design research

 

— There is a synergy between design and social work values, along with Trauma Informed Care

 

— By bringing design and social work we can bring knowledge and literacy with trauma beyond clinical diagnoses
  •  We can move to a trauma responsive design

 

— There are two very important academic design research insights that inform this

 

— The first is from Victor Margolin, a design researcher, who proposed that many professionals share the goals of designers, and he and his wife proposed that both groups take the time to work together
  • We’ve come far in embracing this vision

 

— The second is a 2020 paper from Tad Hirsch that should be required reading for any design practitioner
  • It’s called “Practicing Without a License: Design Research as Psychotherapy”
—  The paper describes how design researcher’s abilities to use rapport to entice research participants to share their personal stories, has the risk to exploit participants in order ‘gain source material’
  • We have real power over the design process, and understanding trauma can play a key role in doing the process right

— So let’s define trauma in the context of design

 

— Trauma is a response to anything overwhelming, coupled with a lack of protection or support, and what makes it unique is that it lives in the body
  • Trauma doesn’t impact us all in the same way and the context is critically important
— This definition comes from Bessel Van Der Kolk, Karine Bell, and Resmaa Menakem

 

— Trauma is tied to memories, and an attachment to traumatic memories influences the many identities we all have
  • I have seen in every conversation I’ve had with designers, that our identities as designers and ways of doing design,  influence how and why we do design

 

— There are six trauma informed care principles to that help us work with designers from the CDC and SAMHSA
  • You have likely been working with systems in government that have been influenced by the CDC and SAMHSA
  • Trauma informed care started in medicine as approach to patient care and takes trauma into account when treating patients
    • The traumas of Vietnam War necessitated new understanding of trauma in 1970s

 

— It’s not a checklist, but  it requires constant awareness sensitivity, and deep cultural change
  • There is no time to go into extreme detail with principles, but I want to share some provocations of how to adopt them in design

 

 

— Here are my adaptions of what principles need to be for design

 

— First is safety. People must feel safe in order to take part in design services and this includes everyone within the design process
  • Imagine that people feel safe in design spaces, when taking these approaches
— I take inspiration from CARF, the Commission on Accreditation of Rehab Facilities, which enhance lives of persons served
  • Work at the programmatic level is hands-on deck, and you are working in lockstep to do every thing you can to meet the standards of care
— The designers intent of “do no harm” can still cause significant harm
  • So CARF focuses on assessing risk, stressing that you are the moral owners of the services you provide
  • Ask yourself: Who are the moral owners of the work you provide in civic design?

 

— Next, all design operations and decisions need to be done with transparency

 

— When talking about speculative design
  • We need designers who are dispersed, savvy, and understand implications of design. We need integrity designers to be proactive and minimize damage of what will happen
  • Moreover, there should be a transparent expectation of damage from services and delivery models that we design
    • This damage is inevitable
  • So who are our future integrity designers to bring into civic design?

 

— Principle of peer support, based on KA McKricher’s book of “Beyond Sticky Notes”

 

— Co-design elevates lived experience, curiosity, learning through doing, and hospitality
  • This hospitality is key to the peer support principle
— What if we moved at speed of care, support, and hospitality?
  • What would it look like in what we design?

 

— Next, in collaboration & mutuality, there is the participatory design mode

 

— This model feels like right thing to do, and we want to engage in this work
  • But I will say from experience that participatory design is hard and takes significant care and time

 

— Next, there is the principle of: Empowerment and Voice

 

— See the example of Civilla, working with small team on vicarious trauma, who interviewed people using government systems in Michigan
  • The team met one-on-one to debrief and process what was coming up
  • The team offered a space of understanding for social workers and designers to help navigate through various systems and who knew the tensions they were navigating
  • Civilla’s debrief and process, rewards, challenges, and proposed next steps — is kind of work we need much more of

 

— Finally, for the sixth principle, we’ll introduce ChiWay Design, a civic based design firm that grounds work within a co-design program

 

— They started a research project with Ohio Child Services to understand embedding of racism within the state child-welfare system, and worked to incorporate trauma informed principles in research

 

— They were authentically engaging with people traumatized by racism, and need significant abundance of care
  • Intersection of trauma-informed and anti-racist of design
  • To be trauma informed, need to commit to anti-racist designs and practices

 

— So these are some sources of where can you be bold and dynamic in your work
  • But who else do you need to be bringing in?

 

— I’ll leave with this question, how can we move through trauma river while being responsive in civic design?
  • That answer is evolving

 

— I want to end on this note, and am eager to hear from you

 

Q&A

 

  1.  Could you say more about being a positive deviant?
—> You are somehow sometimes able to come to other solutions to problems more quickly than other people
  • I was called this by a nurse manager in Veterans Affairs
—> I was intrigued by the label and fully embraced it
  • It’s one of the ways I’ve had to trouble shoot moving through systems as a social worker
— Many positive deviants out there, and I’m sure you will quickly identify with the definition