Summary: Trauma Informed Care Self-Assessments
All New Mexico behavioral health providers are encouraged to become competent in providing traumainformed care for the people of New Mexico. Becoming a trauma-informed agency involves an agencywide understanding of trauma and will shape the ways in which an agency approaches its behavioral
health work.
One of the first formal steps in becoming a trauma-informed agency is to conduct an organizational self
assessment (OSA). There are a variety of OSA instruments available, ranging from relatively short to
more in depth and complex. Below are summaries for three good OSA, and each instrument is available
on the Collaborative website for agencies to download and use.
Select the OSA that best fits your agency and conduct the assessment. Small, one-site agencies with one
or two service lines might consider conducting an agency-wide OSA. Medium to larger agencies,
especially those with multiple sites or service lines might consider focusing on one site, or one service
line or department at a time (reception; intake and assessment; clinical staff; CCSS staff; management;
etc.), and move through the agency or sites consecutively until the entire agency has been assessed.
After conducting the OSA, review the results, provide training, and implement changes toward
becoming fully trauma informed. Conduct the OSA again in six months to evaluate the changes, ensure
new hires are trained, and adjust your practice based on lessons learned through the process.
Periodically, an agency should conduct subsequent OSA to monitor ongoing adherence to traumainformed principles.
The documents listed below include differing OSA scales, and specific protocols for implementing
trauma-informed care. Agencies should review the information in the documents for background,
process purpose and insights, and agency considerations, but are not required to follow the specific
protocols identified in them.
Training and ongoing technical assistance in trauma-informed care principles and conducting an OSA are
available to agencies becoming trauma informed. You can arrange training or technical assistance by
contacting the Trauma-informed Care Advisory team at (505) 896-7100, extension 17107, or sending an
email to hoyt_roberson@pmsnet.org. This training and assistance is provided without cost to your
agency and can be shaped to meet your needs.
Creating Cultures of Trauma-Informed Care (CCTIDC): A Self-Assessment and Planning
Protocol developed by Fallot and Harris, includes six domains, such as (1) Formal Services
Policies, and (2) Trauma Screening, Assessment and Service Planning. The corresponding
Trauma-Informed Program Self-Assessment Scale includes 44 items to help organizations focus
in on practices within each domain. Organizations indicate on a five point likert scale the extent
to which a certain trauma informed principle/characteristic exist (44 in total).
The Trauma-Informed Organizational Self-Assessment developed by the National Center on
Family Homelessness is designed to help programs evaluate their practices and based on their
findings, adapt their programming to support recovery and healing among their clients. The
instrument includes 5 domains with 135 total items required to be rated on a 5-point likert scale.
The scale is embedded within a Trauma Informed Toolkit for homeless services which includes a
roadmap for becoming trauma informed. “The toolkit offers homeless service providers with
concrete guidelines for how to modify their practices and policies to ensure that they are
responding appropriately to the needs of families who have experienced trauma stress.”
The University of South Florida published an organizational self-assessment tool to help
organizations just beginning or already practicing principles of trauma-informed care. The tool
includes 3 domains and 25 items rated on a 5 point likert scale.