New Trauma TIP for Healthcare Professionals

“It’s hard to believe that when I worked in mental health crisis centers we rarely inquired about trauma,” says Larke N. Huang, Ph.D, of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). “Now we better understand the centrality of trauma in behavioral health conditions. We recognize the need for a workforce trained in trauma-specific interventions.”

If you work with individuals who have experienced violence, abuse, neglect, disaster, or another form of trauma, you know that what they’ve been through has a powerful effect on their worldview, health, and behavior.

To help you and your organization empathically and effectively assist people who have experienced trauma, SAMHSA has released the Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) 57. The Trauma TIP offers evidence-based, best-practice information on prevention, intervention, and treatment issues and strategies in behavioral health services. Check it out for information on:

• Becoming trauma aware.
• Evaluating and using trauma-related screening and assessment tools.
• Using strengths-based, resilience-focused interventions.
• Decreasing retraumatization.
• Building a trauma-informed organization and workforce.

Also find out what teens with trauma want you to know, and get some helpful hints for providing trauma-informed care while you are at it.