Incorporating racial equity into trauma-informed care

Takeaways

• Racism is trauma and should be treated as such in any comprehensive trauma-informed care framework.
• Trauma-informed care requires a nuanced understanding of not only how trauma impacts the lives and care of patients, but the root causes behind that trauma.
• This brief offers practical considerations to help health systems and provider practices incorporate a focus on racial equity to enhance trauma-informed care efforts. It draws from the experiences of two federally qualified health centers — the Stephen and Sandra Sheller 11th Street Family Health Services in Philadelphia and Bread for the City in Washington, D.C.