Building on over 20 years of work in this area, the National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma & Mental Health (NCDVTMH) have put into practice a framework that integrates a trauma-informed approach with a DV victim advocacy lens. The term trauma-informed is used to describe organizations and practices that reflect an understanding of the pervasiveness and impact of trauma and that are designed to reduce retraumatization, support healing and well-being and address the root causes of abuse and violence. The resources compiled in these collections reflect this integrated perspective (NCDVTMH 2013, adapted from Harris and Fallot 2001).
Resources on providing collaborative and comprehensive trauma-informed services and advocacy that have been developed by NCDVTMH specifically for DV settings. Also included throughout this collection are resources that have been developed for mental health or substance abuse settings that can also be useful to DV victim advocates.
The goals of this Special Collection series are to provide:
- Basic information about the different ways in which trauma can affect individuals and to highlight current research on effective ways to respond to trauma;
- Practical guidance on developing trauma-informed DV programs and services; and
- Information that will help support collaboration between DV programs, and mental health, substance abuse, and other social services agencies and that will increase awareness about trauma treatment in the context of DV.
This is PART 3 of a 3-part collection, which also includes Understanding the Framework and Approach (PART 1 of 3), and Building Program Capacity (PART 2 of 3). PART 3 provides resources for building collaboration to ensure that survivors and their children have access to culture-, DV- and trauma-informed mental health and substance abuse services.
A Note About Gender: Intimate partner violence perpetrated by men against their female partners is epidemic. At the same time, whatever a person’s gender or their partner’s gender, they may experience intimate partner violence, and gendered language can minimize the experiences of many survivors. We have attempted to use language in this Special Collection that reflects our analysis of gender oppression and other forms of oppression, as well as our commitment to serving all survivors of domestic violence.
This Special Collection was developed by the National Centeron Domestic Violence, Trauma & Mental Health (NCDVTMH) in partnership with the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence. Contact NCDVTMH for specialized technical assistance and training on this and related topics.
