Empathy & the adjuster: The value of trauma-informed care in insurance
In this podcast episode, Dr. Laura McGuire and Michael Pritt discuss the value of trauma-informed care for insurance professionals.
Insurance, by nature, is a trauma-adjacent industry. Aside from purchasing and tweaking policies, or maybe the occasional phone call to pay their bill, most carriers don’t hear from their insureds until they’ve experienced some kind of loss. Not every claim will involve a traumatic experience, of course, but as the first point of contact for these policyholders in crisis, claims professionals can end up stuck between trying to remain empathetic to the insured while also keeping the claims process moving.
There’s also the issue of secondary trauma dealt to those who work in claims. According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, secondary traumatic stress is the emotional distress experienced by an individual who hears a firsthand account of another person’s trauma. Claims professionals may spend much of their time taking in difficult information and seeing the aftermath of disastrous, tragic events, which can lead to emotional distress and burnout.
Upon seeing the need for proper trauma training for insurance professionals, Michael Pritt, senior claim analyst with PURE Insurance, and Dr. Laura McGuire teamed up to develop a course on trauma-informed care specifically for insurance professionals.
McGuire is the CEO of the National Center for Equity & Agency; a consulting firm focused on sexual misconduct as well as diversity and inclusion that provides a research-based perspective for professionals across several industries. In addition to the new trauma-informed care certification for insurance professionals, they have also developed similar programs for legal professionals, clergy, victim advocates and more.
McGuire and Pritt sat down with Insurance Speak at the ALM Complex Claims Forum in Las Vegas to explain the value of trauma-informed for insurers when it comes to both their insureds and themselves.
More information about the Trauma-Informed Insurance Professional Certification can be found here.
To hear the entire conversation, listen to the podcast above or subscribe to Insurance Speak on Spotify, Apple Music or Libsyn.