Phew, this is a hard one for me: It is with profound appreciation, sadness, and good wishes that we announce the retirement of Mary Jo Harwood, LSW, DNCCM from the Traumatic Stress Institute (TSI). Her last day will be June 10^th.

A safety-related blog post to promote awareness: Fidget toys made with water beads have become popular, but they pose significant dangers. We are spreading the word amongst our Risking Connection® organizations participating in the Traumatic Stress Institute Whole System Change Model with the hope they can share and help protect their staff, the clients and families they serve, as well as their wider communities.

My name is Jesse Padilla-Goryl. I am a BCBA (Board Certified Behavioral Analyst) working in adult services in rural, Western Colorado with Ariel Clinical Services, an agency that provides therapeutic foster care to youth, and residential, vocational, and therapeutic services to adults with IDD.

In December 2022, three Connecticut-based Arc organizations embarked on a journey together to implement trauma-informed care (TIC) – not just with clinicians, not just a one-time training – but each as a whole organization aspiring to embed TIC into the fabric of their culture.

It is widely accepted that the roots of trauma-informed care (TIC) as a concept and as a movement grew in the soil conceived and nurtured by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a bureau of the US federal government. In the years since the Dare to Vision conference in 1994, SAMHSA has produced three seminal publications that have defined, outlined, and tracked the evolution of the theory and practice of a trauma-informed approach (TIA).

In my new role as a Program Coordinator with the Traumatic Stress Institute of Klingberg Family Centers, I facilitated a workshop entitled A Treater’s Approach to Building Healthy Attachment with Trauma Survivors that focused on how our attachment styles influence treaters when working with trauma survivors.

Program evaluation using an empirically-validated instrument like the Traumatic Stress Institute’s Online ARTIC Scale (ARTIC stands for Attitudes Related to Trauma-Informed Care) gives you insight into whether the training modality you choose is effective for your staff/agency.  “Trauma-informed care” has become a commonly-used term in healthcare settings as research further supports the impact that past trauma has on an individual’s ability to cope with stress (Gokhale et al., 2020). 

Data driven decision making is an important part of implementing trauma informed care and achieving desired outcomes. What are the options for organizations that don’t have the capacity to conduct a full program evaluation on their own? The Traumatic Stress Institute (TSI) created the Online ARTIC dashboard and an admin resource hub to address that very issue.

As ABA and IDD providers recognize the centrality of trauma in the lives of those they support, the natural next question is, “So what do we do about it?”