I am pleased to announce the publication of the book chapter I co-authored with Dr. Karen Rich on Trauma-Informed Systems of Care in the new resource Handbook of Interpersonal Violence Across the Lifespan. 

Rich K., Garza M.R. (2020) Trauma-Informed Systems of Care. In: Geffner R., White J.W., Hamberger L.K., Rosenbaum A., Vaughan-Eden V., Vieth V.I. (eds) Handbook of Interpersonal Violence and Abuse Across the Lifespan. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62122-7_293-1

"Survivors of interpersonal trauma are vulnerable to risk of re-victimization when seeking help from community agencies such as welfare offices, substance abuse clinics, schools, homeless shelters, medical facilities and criminal justice agencies. Re-victimization of trauma survivors can lead to client dropout, “resistant” behavior, and treatment failure. It can also lead to stress, conflict, burnout, and frequent turnover among staff. Trauma-informed care is a community’s best approach to supporting survivors of interpersonal violence, but many agencies under-estimate its value or lack a comprehensive approach to its implementation. Budgetary concerns, resistance to change, turf issues, hierarchical power structures, lack of training, fears of trauma contagion and negative attitudes towards service recipients contribute to the problems. Interdisciplinary collaboration, investment in prevention, concern for employee wellness and top-down commitment are essential features of trauma-informed agencies. This chapter will present an overview of trauma-informed care, the benefits to clients and providers, obstacles to implementation of best practices, and research initiatives in the field."

This handbook is a project of The National Partnership for Ending Interpersonal Violence (NPEIV), an organization I have been a part of several years dedicated to ending interpersonal violence. The chapters in this handbook are comprehensive in covering the most up-to date research on various forms of interpersonal violence. Over 200 authors, clinicians, and researchers contributed to the handbook, with all proceeds benefitting NPEIV. 

​Introduction:  The Handbook of Interpersonal Violence Across the Lifespan is a comprehensive state-of-the-science reference work for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers. It is written from a trauma-informed perspective, and utilizes adverse childhood experiences research as its basic developmental framework along with the traumatic effects all forms of interpersonal violence tend to produce. With public health and social justice in mind, this human-rights based handbook also focuses on the overlap and continuum of the various types of interpersonal violence. It integrates all forms of interpersonal violence while dealing with key issues of intersectionality and systems responses.


This two-volume handbook is published in collaboration with the National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence Across the Lifespan, which aims to:

• Acknowledge and understand the impact interpersonal violence has on individuals and society
• Recognize the mental, physical, legal, social, and economic burden of interpersonal violence
• Respect an individual's basic right to live without violence; value human dignity
• Promote consensus-based practices while maintaining cultural sensitivity
• Consider and address the unique needs of vulnerable populations

I encourage anyone with an interest in ending interpersonal violence to make a pledge to NPEIV today at ​www.npeiv.org/donate-2

 Over the past several years I have been collaborating with my colleagues from the National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence Across the Lifespan: Global Partners for Peace (www.npeiv.org) on how to educate professionals and the community on utilizing pest practices of Trauma-Informed Care. We have been speaking at national conferences like the International Summit on Violence, Abuse, and Trauma (IVAT) in San Diego, CA and Honolulu, HI. 

As part of our effort, my Co-Chairs, researcher Dr. Karen Rich, and author Susan Omilian, and I guest edited a special double issue on Trauma-Informed Care for the Journal of Aggression Maltreatment and Trauma. After a long process, the issues went into print this past April and May. We received submissions from countries across the globe and across multiple disciplines including schools, medical settings, law enforcement, and mental health addressing populations such as rape survivors, urban communities, eating disordered populations, and hip-hop dance interventions. Many new advances in trauma-informed care involve combining traditional approaches like policing or medical practice with embedded social workers or medical family therapists. You can read more here for access to the introductions to each special issue:
 
A Trauma Informed Call to Action: Culturally-Informed, Multidisciplinary Theoretical and Applied Approaches to Prevention and Healing, published in Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, Volume 28 Issue 4, is now available for you to access via tandfonline.com.
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/xp7hATb58iIYt9nwvJU2/full?target=10.1080/10926771.2019.1601144
 
 
A Trauma-Informed Call to Action: Culturally Informed, Multi-Disciplinary Theoretical, and Applied Approaches to Prevention and Healing, Part II,
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/YdxgGXe696q6kBE3F4ub/full?target=10.1080/10926771.2019.1610129


This year at IVATs Trauma conference, we had the privilege of sharing our research along with our co-presenter and new NPEIV co-chair Diana Barnes-Fox. I also co-presented on a Keynote Panel with renowned co-author of the famous ACES study, Dr. Vincent Felitti, along with Child Welfare Advocate Joyce Thomas and moderator Dr. Karen Rich.  It is a privilege to work with people so committed to public health, healing wounds, and trauma prevention.

I encourage you to join NPEIV at www.NPEIV.org or attend one of the IVAT summits at www.IVATcenters.org if you are interested in violence prevention. At the summit this year some of the survivors of the Parkland shooting held a musical performance, Hawaiian dancers gave an amazing performance at the opening plenary, and famous actor, Vet, Dancing with the Stars performer, author, and trauma survivor JR Martinez served as a Keynote speaker. You will not be disappointed by attending.

How do you get rapists to admit to rape? Basically, don't use the word rape.  Some interesting studies have been published with this data. Similarly, if you want to find out how many people have been sexually assaulted, you don't use the word either rape either.  Often, labels scare people from admitting to their conscious self what really happened. Check out this link for info on these study results.  http://www.upworthy.com/whoa-4-questions-that-got-120-rapists-to-admit-they-were-rapists-5?g=2&c=ufb1