The need for health and social services to be trauma- and violence-informed has never been so pressing. In the wake of COVID-19, racial violence intensified and violence against women spiked globally. Mental health for many is worsening, while the ongoing toxic drug overdose crisis provides horrendous evidence of the impact of trauma, violence, stigma, and social inequities. Service providers across sectors are increasingly impacted by these dynamics and, without supportive environments, are burning out.

Implementing Trauma- and Violence-Informed Care aims to support health and social service organizations and providers to create environments, policies, and practices to mitigate the harms of structural and interpersonal violence and the trauma that ensues. The book is organized around case examples of trauma- and violence-informed care (TVIC) implementation and impact in diverse settings, providing how-to guidance for getting started, sustaining momentum, and assessing outcomes. The book describes the importance of TVIC at multiple levels, from individual practices to organizational protocols and system-level policies, emphasizing TVIC’s alignment with system transformation goals. In doing so, the book presents TVIC as a call to action to improve service user experiences and outcomes, efficient and effective use of resources, and the health and well-being of staff, while addressing and reducing health and social inequities.

C. Nadine Wathen is a professor and Canada Research Chair in Mobilizing Knowledge on Gender-Based Violence in the Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing at Western University.

C. Nadine Wathen's profile page

Colleen Varcoe is a professor and associate director in the School of Nursing at the University of British Columbia.

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"This is a timely resource for addressing the impact of historical and present-day structural trauma experienced by racialized people. The authors’ critical approach to violence and trauma-informed care anchored in socio-ecological and intersectional theories attends to the complexity of systemic barriers including micro politics, macro dynamics of power, and intersecting oppressions. This approach is very important for a nuanced understanding of not only the impact of trauma on people’s lives and well-being, but the deep-seated causes of trauma. Implementing Trauma- and Violence-Informed Care is a crucial book for mental health care practice."

Josephine B. Etowa, OHTN Chair in Black Women’s HIV Prevention and Care and Professor of Nursing, University of Ottawa

"This handbook is solidly grounded in an intersectional paradigm and relational approach and articulates clearly a structural and systemic lens to trauma and violence. It is an indispensable guide to improving health and social services experiences and outcomes at multiple levels by practitioners and organizational and system leaders."

Amélie Blanchet Garneau, Indigenous Research Chair in Nursing-CIHR and Associate Professor of Nursing, Université de Montréal

"This handbook is compulsory reading for any health care professional, administrator, or policy maker to develop the competencies to understand trauma- and violence-informed care and to ensure practice, policy, organizations, and health systems are developing approaches to prevent harm and improve outcomes.

David Byres, President and CEO, Provincial Health Services Authority