The organizational trauma‐informed practices tool (O‐TIPs): Development and preliminary validation

Abstract

The goal of the study was to develop and validate a simple, short, easy to self-administer, and cost-effective tool to assess organizational trauma-informed practices (O-TIPs), by building on existing tools. The tool was developed through a series of steps involving detailed examination, selection, and modification of existing trauma-informed (TI) frameworks and tools, which resulted in a 31-item questionnaire with three domains and eight subscales. The O-TIPs was evaluated for known-group construct validity to determine the degree to which it could discriminate between groups of organizations that were higher and lower on the extent to which they were implementing TIPs, by administering it online to staff at seven federally qualified health centers at two-time points. The domains, subscales, and the overall measure showed high internal consistency and discriminated significantly between known groups of centers at baseline and follow-up. In addition, the tool captured change over time in the extent to which the organizations were implementing TIPs. These findings provide preliminary support for the future use of the O-TIPs tool by service-delivery organizations.

What would a trauma-informed workplace ideally look like in legal aid? A qualitative perspective from lawyers

“…The one-page Summary of Trauma Informed Practice ( Appendix A ) that was attached to the email inviting lawyers to participate was based upon the model used by SAMHSA ( 2014 ) and an article by Kezelman and Stavropoulos ( 2016 ) from the Blue Knot Foundation in Australia. The approach of the SAMHSA was adopted because it is often used, has been empirically validated (Manian et al., 2021 ) and has been considered in a legal context (James, 2020 ; McKenna & Holtfreter, 2021 ; Swanson, 2019 ). The work of Kezelman and Stavropoulos ( 2016 ) was also incorporated because their article considered trauma-informed practice within the Australian legal context.…”

“…There are numerous instruments available to measure whether an organisation is trauma informed (Thirkle et al., 2021 ), and some studies demonstrate that particular models of trauma-informed practice have in fact had a positive impact on the well-being of staff (James, 2020 , p. 285; Manian et al., 2021 ). But what this looks like in practice varies, because there are a number of different models (James, 2020 ), and these have been adapted to specific professions and cohorts of clients.…”

Child-focused evaluation: Involving children as their own respondents

“…In recognition of the potential trauma and ACEs that children in our study could have experienced, we used a traumainformed approach in our training and data collection activities (Manian, Rog, Lieberman & Kerr 2022;SAMHSA 2015). We provided a basic informational session on the potential neglect and abuse experienced by the children at RCF and the potential negative effects on children's attachment, distrust of adults, increased need to appease adults, fear of close contact and so on (San Cristobal, Santelices & Miranda Fuenzalida 2017).…”