Overview

The resources shared in this toolkit are informed by our work with the Hospital Collaborative and are designed to help providers both increase their understanding of what it means to be truly trauma-informed and begin the complex and multi-step process of implementing those practices. This work is ongoing. Visit again soon for updates and contact us to share ideas of your own.                           

Quick Links

• Newsletter archive (click here to join our mailing list)
• Webinar archive–Access webinars focused on trauma-informed systems change, burnout and wellness for healthcare providers, and more.
• ACEs Policy Briefs–Our policy brief series explores the impact of ACEs in the health, justice, and education systems including promising practices and recommended actions for change.
• Environmental Scans–Our 2016 scan captures learning from over 300 programs in Illinois and nationally working to address trauma, while our 2018 scan provides in-depth snapshots of 27 organizations that have begun the process of becoming trauma-informed.
• Findings from the Illinois 2013 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey–Data is a powerful tool for many in policy and leadership roles, one that can help them to more effectively make the case for addressing trauma and determine the potential return on investment of ACE-informed policies. Our report presents findings from the 2013 BRFSS and examines the prevalence of ACEs among adults in Illinois and Chicago, including assessing racial/ethnic and gender differences, and the association of ACEs with negative health outcomes.

Assessment Tools

• Members of our Trauma-Informed Hospital Collaborative filled out this assessment for their individual hospital following the SAMSHA guidelines. View the assessment tool.
• In 2018, the Hospital Collaborative decided to use the Chicago Department of Public Health’s “Trauma Informed Transformation Staff Assessment Survey” to collect baseline data from our members. The survey asks questions across five domains (knowledge, skills, practices, safety, delegate agencies, and clinical services) in order to assess an entire organization to a) understand how “traumatic stress” is currently experienced by staff and consumers/clients and b) identify short and long term opportunities for improvement. We are currently customizing the tool for the hospital setting and hope to make it available here soon.
• Guide to Completing the Agency Self-Assessment:The Agency Self-Assessment for Trauma-Informed Care is intended to be a tool that will help you assess your organization’s readiness to implement a trauma-informed approach. Honest and candid staff responses can benefit
  your agency by helping to identify opportunities for program and environmental change, assist in professional
  development planning, and can be used to inform organizational policy change. (Adopted from the National Center on Family Homelessness Trauma-Informed Organizational Self-Assessment and “Creating Cultures of Trauma- Informed Care: A Self Assessment and Planning Protocol” article by Roger D. Fallot, Ph.D. & Maxine Harris, Ph.D.)

Sample Presentation to Hospital Leadership

• Trauma-Informed Hospitals, Audrey Stillerman, MD and Colleen Cicchetti, Ph.D.

A key learning from our work is that buy-in from organization leadership is a key ingredient for systems transformation. This sample presentation is modeled off of conversations our members have had with their leadership and is intended to show the “value add” of making trauma-awareness a system-wide goal.

• Trauma-Informed Care: Laying the Groundwork for Investment by Healthcare Systems, The Illinois ACEs Response Collaborative

Intended for hospital and health sector leaders, this report provides key background information about the science behind trauma-informed care; how provider and staff knowledge about trauma can improve patient health outcomes; the economics of trauma-informed care; and new understanding of the impact of secondary trauma on provider burnout.

Staff Wellness

Across the board, the hospitals and health care providers we work with have identified staff and caregiver wellness and retention as key area for change. Both staff and patients carry the burden and stress of their own individual ACEs and traumas. In addition, healthcare workers carry the added secondary traumatic stress of exposure to their patients’ ACEs and traumas and the stress of their workplace. Addressing staff wellness and avoiding burnout is a key step to becoming trauma-informed.

• Burnout in Health Care: Organizational Impacts & Solutions
• Webinar series on burnout and wellness in the health care workforce
• Supporting the Healthcare Workforce: Understanding Burnout, Its Impacts, and What Can Be Done About It– Burnout in health care is a widespread problem with profound implications for patients, professionals, and health care systems. While some promising strategies have been identified to address burnout, much more work is necessary, especially on a system and policy level. Our new brief provides an overview of burnout, including its prevalence, consequences, drivers, and costs. It then delves into strategies to mitigate the impact of burnout and suggests areas for further research and policy change.
• Strategies for Encouraging Staff Wellness in Trauma-Informed Organizations, Center for Health Care Strategies
• Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL)– The Professional Quality of Life Scale, developed by Dr. Beth Hudnall Stamm, measures the pleasure providers derive from being able to do their work well, feelings of hopelessness and difficulties in dealing with work or in doing their jobs effectively, as well as work-related, secondary exposure to extremely stressful events. Click here to learn more about ProQOL.

Videos on Trauma-Informed Care

• TedxUofIChicago – The Science of Adversity, Resilience, and Transformation, Audrey Stillerman, MD
• TedxChicago – The Science of Adversity and the Case for Systemic Empathy, Stan Sonu, MD
• MARC Brown Bag Webinar Series: Healthy Systems = Trauma-Informed and Trauma-Responsive, Sandra Bloom, MD

ACEs 101 Resources

• Standard Slide Deck and Talking Points, Audrey Stillerman, MD
• Key Ingredients for Trauma-Informed Care, Center for Health Care Strategies
• Resource List for Trauma-Informed Care, Center for Health Care Strategies