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).

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?”

The Traumatic Stress Institute (TSI) is excited to bring you a free webinar highlighting the work of Greg Hanley, Ph.D., BCBA-D, LABA. In 2020, TSI made the strategic decision to offer our trauma-informed care (TIC) training and consultation services to organizations in the intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) sector. We have or currently are working with eight IDD organizations, helping them embed TIC within the fabric of their organizational cultures.

Setting the Scene

Way back in 2019, I took a series of Improv classes at a place called Happier Valley Comedy where I live in Western Massachusetts. How brave of me, right? On Tuesday nights a group – ages 15 to 65 – that started out as strangers would gather to engage in a smorgasbord of improvisational games and activities.

We have reached the halfway point of an innovative TIC initiative in the intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) sector.  So, it seemed like a good time to share out some of our achievements, challenges, and lessons learned so far.

In 2015 the Traumatic Stress Institute (TSI), in partnership with Dr. Courtney Baker of Tulane University, noticed a research-to-practice gap in the trauma-informed care (TIC) field. In short, TIC interventions of all sorts were trending, while at the same time there was limited empirical evidence to quantify the impact of TIC.

The Traumatic Stress Institute (TSI) of Klingberg Family Centers is seeking to hire contracted Faculty Trainers for our Risking Connection Trauma Training as adapted for organizations serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

In August 2021, the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare officially added the Attitudes Related to Trauma-Informed Care (ARTIC) Scale to their list of evidence-based measurement tools for child welfare. The ARTIC Scale received an assessment rating of “A – Psychometrics Well-Demonstrated,” the highest rating offered by the CEBC. It is the only measure of trauma-informed care (TIC) listed on the CEBC.

If there was ever any doubt that the IDD field is recognizing the critical importance of trauma, three brand new articles in the academic literature have put that to rest. They are all scoping reviews which summarize the professional literature on a particular topic and attempt to synthesize the current state of knowledge.