Key Ingredients for Trauma-Informed Care Implementation

Course overview

Course Description: This course presents the foundational organizational and clinical ingredients necessary for implementing a trauma-informed approach to care across health care settings. Drawing from the Center for Health Care Strategies issue brief produced as part of the Advancing Trauma-Informed Care initiative a multi-site demonstration project supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation the course examines how exposure to adverse childhood experiences and other traumatic events creates lifelong health risks, and how health care organizations can respond by shifting their culture and practices from asking patients What's wrong with you? to What happened to you? Participants will explore the five key organizational ingredients for trauma-informed transformation leading and communicating about the transformation process, engaging patients in organizational planning, training clinical and non-clinical staff, creating a safe environment, and preventing secondary traumatic stress in staff as well as the four key clinical ingredients, including involving patients in treatment, screening for trauma, training staff in trauma-specific treatment approaches, and engaging referral sources and partnering organizations. The course also examines the five core principles of a trauma-informed approach (patient empowerment, choice, collaboration, safety, and trustworthiness), reviews evidence-based trauma treatment models for adults and children, and explores payment, policy, and workforce development opportunities to advance the field. This course on key ingredients for successful trauma-informed care implementation is designed for social workers, professional counselors, psychologists, nurses, and substance abuse counselors who do clinical work. This course is appropriate for intermediate and advanced level practitioners who wish to develop or increase their knowledge of trauma-informed organizational and clinical practices. It may also be useful for licensed clinicians who want trauma informed care continuing education courses for license renewal. Authors: Menschner, C. & Maul, A. Learning Objectives: This course will provide a professional with detailed information about the key ingredients for successful trauma-informed care implementation. Specifically, the practitioner will: 1. Describe the five core principles of a trauma-informed approach to care. 2. Identify the four key clinical ingredients of a trauma-informed approach. 3. Apply trauma-informed principles to clinical and organizational practice. Citation: Menschner, C., & Maul, A. (2020). Key ingredients for successful trauma-informed care implementation. Center for Health Care Strategies.