Trauma informed care and health equity are intertwined. Especially in health care settings, each is necessary to promote and foster the other. Racism is historically embedded in our medical and public heath systems, and has intergenerational consequences. Our response patterns need to change personally and systemically, rooted in emerging principles and practices of trauma-informed care.
The COVID-19 pandemic increased risks to the health and well-being of children and youth. This was especially true for children and youth of color. Black, Latinx, and Native American families are less likely to have health insurance and are more likely to have chronic health conditions which COVID-19 can make worse (Oberg, Hodges, Gander, Nathawad, & Cutts, 2022). The racial inequities seen in the healthcare system can be traumatizing for children and youth, which is why it's critical that we work together to foster health equity.
Incorporating Racial Equity into Trauma-Informed Care from the Center for Health Care Strategies (2021) offers practical considerations to help health systems and provider practices incorporate a focus on racial equity to enhance trauma-informed care efforts.
In this TedTalk: How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime (2014), Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain that can impact health across a lifetime.