Organizations often see measurement and program evaluation as a luxury or something extra to do - they'll do it if they have extra cash or if it's required by a grant or a change package they purchase. It’s viewed as something that will tell them at the end whether the intervention moved the needle.

A large-scale study with 1,395 human service providers, health professionals, and educators from 17 different settings established further support for the psychometric properties of the Attitudes Related to Trauma-Informed Care (ARTIC) Scale. The study entitled “Validation of the Attitudes Related to Trauma Informed Care Scale (ARTIC)”—by lead author Courtney Baker, Ph.D. from Tulane University and a team of others—was published online in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, a journal of the American Psychological Association (APA).

Measuring Whether an Organization’s Trauma-Informed Care Efforts Are Working

As the movement toward trauma-informed care (TIC) continues to grow and evolve, organizations, systems, governing bodies, and funders are understandably asking, "How can we tell if we are making progress?" Many of us have experienced these powerful “aha” moments of TIC:

While efforts to implement trauma-informed care are trending, TIC measurement is still in its infancy. So, as human service, education, and health organizations increasingly strive to become trauma-informed, it’s essential to measure whether desired results are being achieved.

Supporting Trauma-Informed Transformation in Settings Serving First Nation Communities

Beginning in 2010, the Traumatic Stress Institute began supporting the Yukon Territory (Canada) child welfare system to make the transition to trauma-informed care (TIC).