Part III: Mindfulness for Trauma Treaters and Survivors – First, Do No Harm

This is the third in a series of blog posts on the role of mindfulness in sustaining trauma-informed care.

Mindfulness practice can support transformative healing. But it can also cause harm, especially for trauma survivors. Maximizing healing and minimizing harm is imperative for trauma-informed treaters and champions, so the emergence of trauma-sensitive mindfulness (TSM) is both timely and welcome.

The Online ARTIC makes TIC assessment and program evaluation user-friendly. At the same time, it still requires thoughtful planning, staff time, and effort to get meaningful results.

Committing to trauma-informed care is the difficult part. With the Online ARTIC, measuring trauma-informed care is the easy part. Start today with 6 Easy Steps to Onboard the Online ARTIC.

Part II: Mindfulness – Healing Racial Trauma

This is the second in a series of blog posts on the role of mindfulness in sustaining trauma-informed care.

Both within our Risking Connection community and beyond it, delivering trauma-informed care (TIC) is an ethical imperative.

As part of our Whole System Change Model, the Traumatic Stress Institute offers training to trainers of foster parents. This sort of training requires honoring the unique position and perspective of foster parents, and so it is a different situation than training staff.

The Traumatic Stress Institute is part of Klingberg Family Centers, a social service agency in New Britain, CT with a wide range of programs that support children and families struggling with issues of trauma.

Part I: Mindfulness – Finding Balance When the World is Upside Down

This is the first in a series of blog posts on the role of mindfulness in sustaining trauma-informed care.

Our Current Challenge

Adopting and sustaining trauma-informed care can be overwhelming. Senior leaders, managers and direct care staff must accept the reality that creating a culture of trauma-informed care is more journey than destination.

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.

Angela is very upset. As the Coordinator of the Group Home she has worked hard to be supportive and caring towards her staff. She has been proud of her team, their good relationships, and their low turnover. She has provided many staff recognition and fun activities. But lately she is hearing only complaints. A recent staff survey revealed that staff feels that management undercuts them with the youth. Staff have issues with her, the unit supervisor, and the therapist. Furthermore, Angela is starting to not like the staff much, either. The team has asked for an outside consultation.