Yes, I think there are a few things. One is about education and training for shelter workers. There is no doubt that there are capacity issues. Sometimes there's only one staff person in an overnight shift with a house full of traumatized people.
There's no standardized training or education for shelter workers—at least not here in Nova Scotia—so they're not necessarily equipped for the kinds of challenges they're facing, such as mental health and substance use challenges. Also, if there are children, there are trauma-specific needs of children and youth in those situations.
Most people learn on the job. We use “trauma-informed” as a buzzword these days, but trauma-specialized, trauma-sensitive responses are things that not a lot of people really understand or are educated in. That can have a huge impact on the clients who are coming into the shelter, because if the staff are dysregulated.... Many of them carry their own lived experience. They're suffering vicarious trauma. They have moral injury because the organizations are not caring for them or validating their experiences. When clients come in and face dysregulated staff, that can be very harmful. We're hearing that from people who go into shelters. This really is an unnamed and silenced dimension that we don't really talk about.
On the turnover, people sometimes do go to shelters repeatedly. I had somebody describe to me that they were a “frequent flyer” at a transition house. When you're constantly seeing new people who have different levels of experience or competence in trauma-sensitive responses, it does damage people's trust. Women talk, so if people are not having a good experience, that kind of dynamic gets spread through the community and does compromise trust in the community.