The overarching goal of the Alameda County Trauma Informed Care Learning Collaborative (LC) is to improve the quality of consumer care across Alameda County through coordinated Trauma Informed Care systems and practice change. The LC representatives include consumers, family members, community-based providers, the center for healthy schools and communities, behavioral health care services, public health care services, and county system partners (e.g. social services, probation, etc.). Participants of the group share a common interest in enhancing trauma informed care within Alameda County and will collaborate over an extended period to share ideas, find solutions, and build innovations.
If you would like to learn more or are interested in becoming involved with the activities of the LC, please contact Lori DeLay (email: ldelay@acbhcs.org), the BHCS Trauma Informed Care Coordinator.
What is the Trauma Informed Care Project?
Many of Alameda County’s consumers and family members who are served through our behavioral health care system have experienced trauma from multiple sources over long periods of time. Some examples of this trauma include: poverty; neighborhood violence; child abuse and neglect; domestic violence; historical trauma; war/relocation; mental health discrimination and internalized stigma; prison; and homelessness. Often, those exposed to trauma lack natural supports or ways to heal. Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services (ACBHCS) funded a one-year Trauma Informed Care Capacity Building Project as a response to the need to better support those who have experienced and continue to experience such traumas.
This project was funded to increase awareness of what works to support healing for those who have experienced trauma and to increase the number and variety of trauma informed practices used by our providers. The trauma informed care research and practices (found locally and nationwide) were reviewed. Also BHCS providers, consumers, and family members worked collaboratively to:
- Offer resources to consumers and family members that build self-care skills and are easy to access and use.
- Offer tools and strategies to providers that increase trauma informed care practices that are welcoming, minimize re-victimization, and validate the strengths of survivors, by encouraging skill-building, empowerment and self-determination.
- Establish a learning collaborative to sustain the effort of healing trauma in Alameda County.
This project was inspired by our Behavioral Health Care consumer leadership, the ACBHCS Training Department, and a Visioning Group consisting of the ACBHCS Pool of Consumer Champions in collaboration with ACBHCS providers and family members. Our ACBHCS Trauma Informed Care Capacity Building Project was managed by WestCoast Children’s Clinic (WestCoast). WestCoast has provided mental health services to families and children for over 30 years. Their Training and Research & Evaluation departments are well known for their work identifying, evaluating, and implementing innovative approaches to mental health and wellness.