Organizational Trauma-Informed Care: Associations With Individual and Agency Factors

In response to the growing awareness of the high rates of potentially traumatic experiences and their potential adverse impacts, health and human service providers have increasingly focused on implementing trauma-informed care (TIC). However, studies focusing on effective implementation have been li...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological services 2019-02, Vol.16 (1), p.134-142
Main Authors: Unick, George Jay, Bassuk, Ellen L., Richard, Molly K., Paquette, Kristen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Associations
Cultural change
Female
Health Care Services
Human
Human Services
Male
Organizational Characteristics
Organizational Effectiveness
Patient participation
Personnel Training
Power
Professional Competence
Quantitative psychology
Trauma
Trauma-Informed Care
Traumatic life events
User involvement
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Summary:In response to the growing awareness of the high rates of potentially traumatic experiences and their potential adverse impacts, health and human service providers have increasingly focused on implementing trauma-informed care (TIC). However, studies focusing on effective implementation have been limited. In this study, we explored the relationship of individual and agency characteristics to the level of organizational TIC. With data collected from a sample of 345 providers from 67 agencies, we used the TICOMETER, a brief measure of organizational TIC with strong psychometric properties, to determine these associations. We found weak relationships between individual factors and TICOMETER scores and stronger associations for agency-level factors. These included agency type, time since last trauma training, and involvement of service users. These findings highlight the importance of robust cultural changes, service user involvement at all levels of the organization, flattening power differentials, and providing ongoing experiential training. This analysis fills an important gap in our knowledge of how best to ensure agency-wide provision of TIC.
ISSN:1541-1559
1939-148X
DOI:10.1037/ser0000299