Building a Trauma Informed System of Care Toolkit

Building a Trauma Informed System of Care Evaluation: Reach, Effectiveness, Successes, & Barriers

Barriers

• A behavioral health employee reported that there is still a great deal of stigma around the term “trauma.” • All system partners agreed that obtaining buy-in from senior leadership within the organization is critical to making progress. • Some partners pointed out that staff training hours currently consist of mandated yearly trainings so adding trauma informed care training was not easily accomplished. One system partner manager said to get around this barrier, she held a series of “lunch and learn” events where staff was invited to bring a lunch and then she gave small increments of information about ACEs science once a month. In time, staff interest rose to the level they were asking for more. • Focus group members from several different sectors mentioned that there is a fear of people falling into “victim mode,” using their past trauma as a crutch. • One experienced school principal commented that people who have had some training in trauma informed care think they are responding in a trauma informed way, when they actually are not. • Several group members confirmed that practicing trauma informed care heightens the risk of compassion fatigue or burnout, but also offered each other coping strategies used in their organizations. • Some university instructors reported that “inertia” is a problem— “we’ve always done things this way.” • Several partners reported high rates in staff or volunteer turnover, resulting in challenges to maintaining staff who all had received training.

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