Adrienne Baldwin-White’s mobile app provides valuable tool for trauma-informed care
A new mobile app designed and released by VCU School of Social Work assistant professor Adrienne Baldwin-White, Ph.D., has its roots in an awkward exchange she had during an appointment with her OB-GYN in 2018.
The doctor failed to follow new requirements to ask her about whether she felt safe from domestic violence in her home. So Baldwin-White posed a question instead: Why didn’t the doctor ask?
The doctor’s response – an uncertainty over how to broach a difficult subject – led Baldwin-White to begin a project at the University of Georgia that ultimately culminated in the release of the trauma-informed care app after Baldwin-White joined VCU and the School of Social Work in August 2022.
The app, (T.I.M.E. (Trauma Informed Medicine Education), includes sections on the impact of trauma, best practices for providing trauma-informed care and forensic exams, how to set up an exam space that is trauma-informed and self-care tips for providers. There is also a virtual space for professionals to connect, share resources and serve as sounding boards for one another.
“Medical schools are really open to what I’m doing,” Baldwin-White says. “Medical students were more open about talking to me about trauma-informed care in the early development process than practicing physicians. … Medical students understand the importance of trauma-informed care in medicine, and they want to learn the tools they need in order to do that. … Having a trauma-informed approach means you can actually do your job better as a doctor.”
» See the full story at VCU News.
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