The Governor’s Trauma-Informed Care Working Group (TIC working group) is tasked with fulfilling directives in the 2018 Appropriations Act and Executive Order 11 to create a system of trauma-informed care in Virginia. Trauma-informed care is a framework of care and service delivery developed in response to decades of research showing severe stressors and trauma, often referred to as adverse childhood events (ACEs), cause toxic biological responses in the developing brain, often with long-term consequences for health.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has developed a framework for defining trauma-informed care and services in the behavioral health sector but can also be adapted to other child and family serving sectors such as child welfare, education, criminal and juvenile justice, primary health care, the courts, and housing. The TIC working group recommends that Virginia’s child and family-serving programs and agencies adopt this framework in designing their service delivery.

Many state agencies, non-profits, and private service providers are moving toward a trauma-informed system of service delivery. The TIC working group is cataloging current work at state agencies around trauma-informed care delivery. In this interim report, the group outlines current activity in state agencies under the Secretary of Health and Human Resources. However, the TIC working group represents a much broader group and will be cataloging work in the Secretariats of Education, Public Safety, and Commerce and Trade. The TIC working group recommends the administration convene an internal “Trauma-Informed Care State Steering Committee" led by the Governor’s staff and consisting of leadership in the state agencies involved trauma-informed systems of care. In addition, the TIC working group recommends their future work include the development of a strategic plan for recruiting, training, and supporting a trauma-informed workforce and a dashboard with short and long-term metrics to track progress, as well as outcomes and indicators state leaders should expect to see with successful implementation.

Interim Recommendations

1. Virginia’s child and family-serving agencies should adopt the SAMHSA definition and framework of trauma-informed care.

2. The Governor should convene an internal “Trauma-Informed Care State Steering Committee" led by the Governor’s staff and consisting of the leadership of the state agencies involved in efforts to create a trauma-informed system of care.

3. The TIC working group should develop a strategic plan for recruiting, training, and supporting a trauma-informed workforce in Virginia’s child and family-serving sectors.

4. The TIC working group should develop a dashboard of short and long-term metrics the executive, legislative, and judicial branches can use to assess Virginia’s progress in developing a trauma-informed workforce and system of care, as well as the positive outcome measures state leaders should expect to see as a result.