TIC frameworks can be applied in many contexts including medicine, mental health, law, education, architecture, addiction, gender, culture, and interpersonal relationships.
TIC principles emphasize the need to understand the scope of what constitutes danger and how resulting trauma impacts human health, thoughts, feelings, behaviors, communications, and relationships.
Most frameworks incorporate a biopsychosocial perspective, attending to the integrated effects on biology (body and brain), psychology (mind), and sociology (relationship).
[3] A basic view of trauma-informed care (TIC) involves developing a holistic appreciation of the potential effects of trauma with the goal of expanding the care-provider's empathy while creating a feeling of safety.
[5][6] They described trauma-informed as a vital paradigm shift, from focusing on the apparently immediate presenting problem to first considering past experience of trauma and violence.
[11] They more finely parsed Harris and Fallot's earlier ideas, and included relational collaboration, strengths and resilience, cultural competence, and consumer input.
Huntington and colleagues reviewed the WCDVS data, and working with a steering committee, they reached a consensus on a framework of four core principles for organizations to implement.
[9] The TIC concept expanded into specific disciplines such as education, child welfare agencies, homeless shelters, and domestic violence services.
[13] In 2016, the Canadian Department of Justice published "Trauma- (and violence-) informed approaches to supporting victims of violence: Policy and practice considerations".
"[4]: 2 Parenting, or caregiver, styles which are dismissive, inconsistent, harsh, abusive or expose children to other physical or relational dangers can cause a trauma which impairs neurodevelopment.
[4]: 11 The Dynamic-Maturational Model of Attachment and Adaptation (DMM) describes how children's repeated exposure to these dangers can result in lifespan impairments to information processing.
[34] Similarly, social determinants of health, such as economic insecurity, can also indicate increased risk for injury or development of trauma, contributing to a higher ACE score for individuals at high-risk for re-injury/traumatization.
SAMHSA gives six key principles: safety; trustworthiness and transparency; peer support; collaboration and mutuality; empowerment, voice and choice, and; cultural, historical and gender issues.
They also list 10 implementation domains: governance and leadership; policy; physical environment; engagement and involvement; cross sector collaboration; screening, assessment and treatment services; training and workforce development; progress monitoring and quality assurance; financing; and evaluation.
Researchers Casassa and colleagues interviewed sex trafficking survivors to search for how trauma bonds can be broken and healing can occur.
[44] By comparison, Landini, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, describes five primary principles from DMM attachment theory for helping people better manage danger response.
[4] Van der Kolk describes how the "Brain and body are [neurobiologically] programmed to run for home, where safety can be restored and stress hormones can come to rest.
[citation needed] Traumatic experiences, including childhood attachment trauma, can impact memory function and communication style in children and adults.
One simple suggestion, in order to enhance the perception of care, safety and agency in the first phone call, is to provide calm phrasing and tone, minimize hold times, and offer brief explanations for delays.
Rudolph describes how to conceptualize and apply TIC in health care settings using egalitarian, relational, narrative and prinicplist ethical frameworks.
[100] Many policies and programs have emerged from the field of trauma-informed care, with the intention of preventing trauma at the source by improving social determinants of health.
For example, the Nurse Family Partnership is a childhood home visitation program with the goal of helping new mothers learn about parenting to reduce child abuse and improve the living environment of children.
[42] The Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) implemented wide-ranging TIC policies, which were analyzed over a five year period by Connell and colleagues in a research study.
[104] Proponents argue that TIC is necessary to interrupt this broader cycle of violence, as studies show that medical treatment alone does not protect survivors from re-injury.
Studies show that having managers with lived-experience can validate the experiences of clients and erode cultural stigmas that may come with seeking help in traditional case-working frameworks.
[104] The same study suggests that the most successfully met client-reported needs by HVIPs included mental health, legal services, and financial/victim-of-crime assistance.
[104] Another study found that survivors that engaged in HVIP services were more likely to continue with medical follow-up visits, and return to work or school after their injury compared to those who did not have access to these programs.
[106] Following positive results, some medical professionals have called for the implementation of HVIPs at all Level 1 trauma centers to deliver trauma-informed care addressing social determinants of health post-injury.
[105] [104] Notably, HVIPs as a trauma-informed care model struggled with meeting long term needs of clients, such as employment, education, and housing.
[112] Other notable people who have developed or promoted TIC programs include Tania Glyde, Carol Wick, Pat Frankish, Michael Huggins, Brad Lamm, Barbara Voss, Cathy Malchiodi, Activists, journalists and artists supporting TIC awareness include Liz Mullinar, Omar Bah, Ruthie Bolton, Caoimhe Butterly, and Gang Badoy.