ABSTRACT
For all of the above reasons, trauma-informed care (TIC) was identified as a priority by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and they created the National Center for TraumaInformed Care (NCTIC) in 2005 through a shared initiative with the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (SAMHSA, 2014). Simply stated, TIC is an approach to designing policy, systems of care, and our clinical practice based on what we know from research about the impact of trauma on people, as well the knowledge from our research that most of the clients in our service systems have had significant exposure to traumatic events over the course of their lives (Smyth & Greyber, 2013). Recognizing that traumatic events made people feel unsafe and powerless, TIC seeks to ensure that clients and staff feel safe and empowered, and is organized around the principles of safety/trustworthiness, choice/collaboration/empowerment, and a strengths-based approach (Hopper, Bassuk, & Olivet, 2010).
