Pathways to Resilience kicked off the new year with a Learning Network Session on opportunities to promote healing-centered trauma-responsive policies and programs at the federal and state levels. During the session, we first heard about the federal landscape from Jesse Kohler and Jen Curt from the Campaign for Trauma Informed Policies and Practices (CTIPP). Tia Hartsock from Hawai’i’s Office of Wellness and Resilience and Rob Reed from Pennsylvania’s Office of the Attorney General and the HEAL PA Criminal Justice Action Team then discussed their state offices’ priorities, successes, and opportunities. Following is a summary of key takeaways from the session.

Hawai’i and Pennsylvania Pave the Way for Healing-Oriented Initiatives

Session panel member Tia Hartsock has been a member of the state-wide Trauma Informed Care Task Force since its inception in 2021. The TIC Task Force, a partnership between major child-serving state departments, non-profits, and key stakeholders, was created by H.B. 1322 and tasked with creating a framework for implementing trauma-informed care policies across state agencies, addressing the disproportionate representation of Native Hawaiians in systems, and providing recommendations to state Legislators. While the task force is set to conclude its work in the end of 2023, their work will continue with Ms. Hartsock at the helm.

Ms. Hartsock shared the following priorities of the new Office of Wellness and Resilience:

  • Address mental health equity and parity as it pertains to physical health
  • Create a Social Determinants of Health Dashboard to highlight needs and gaps across diverse communities
  • Serve as an incubator for collaboration and coordination of state efforts
  • Amplify and uplift trauma-informed care and resilience-focused practices, including highlighting and codifying ancestral knowledge and cultural best practices to support and honor native Hawaiian communities and individuals.

Hawaii’s new Governor, Dr. Josh Green, shares many of these priorities. In addition to funding the Office of Wellness and Resilience, the Governor is also creating a position for a state-wide mental health policy coordinator and supporting myriad initiatives around homelessness and payment equity for health and mental health practitioners to address the shortage of care providers across Hawai’i.

Like Hawai’i, Pennsylvania has been at the forefront of the movement for trauma-informed and trauma-responsive policies and programs. Former Governor Wolf demonstrated the state’s commitment to supporting vulnerable and marginalized Pennsylvanians by creating the Office of Advocacy and Reform via executive order in 2019 and organizing a think tank of individuals. From the Office of Advocacy and Recovery, the HEAL PA (Healing, Empowerment, Advocacy, Learning, Prevention, and Action) coalition was born. HEAL PA is comprised of multi-sector and multi-disciplinary members from within state agencies and community members across the state. The coalition houses many action teams that focus on: training and technical assistance for organizations and health care providers, support for schools and colleges, addressing and working to prevent causes of racism and discrimination and healing from acts of racial and community discrimination, support upstream solutions to poverty, and coordinate the child abuse prevention campaign laid out in HEAL PA’s 5-year strategy.

Rob Reed, Pennsylvania’s Executive Deputy Attorney General for Special Initiatives, has supported Pennsylvania’s efforts to become a trauma-informed state since the Office of Advocacy and Reform was established. He currently chairs HEAL PA’s Criminal Justice Reform Action Team, which recently published its first Report and Recommendations for creating a Trauma-Informed Criminal Justice System. Mr. Reed shared that HEAL PA, in partnership with Resilient PA and the United Way of Pennsylvania, have reached out to counties across the state – 20 of which have trauma-informed coalitions in their communities.

For more information on the priorities of new Governors in other states, see our Overview of Incoming Governors’ Priorities.

Federal Actions to Promote Resilience and Address Trauma

CTIPP presented on legislative actions from the 117th Congress that were designed to address trauma and amplify upstream, cross-sector initiatives to promote healing and resilience. These include:

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act addresses an array of community safety issues, including gun violence, mental health services for children and families, and school safety and support systems.

The Post-Disaster Mental Health Response Act amends the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s existing Crisis Counseling Assistance and Training Program to provide federal dollars to community-based mental health providers serving individuals after an Emergency Declaration. The Crisis Counseling Assistance and Training Program provides evidence-based practices, guidance, tools, and funding to support the mental health of community members after a crisis event. The Post Disaster Mental Health Response Act ensures that crisis events that do not meet the criteria for a “major disaster” still receive adequate resources and support.

The Federal Plan for Equitable Long Term Recovery and Resilience (ELTRR) is an example of the power of cross-agency collaboration. This plan was developed collaboratively by multiple federal agencies to braid and blend federal resources to promote national resilience and cross-sector solutions. This plan intends to address ‘Vital Conditions for Health and Well-Being,’ criteria which include reliable transportation, basic needs, lifelong learning, meaningful work and wealth, humane housing, basic needs, and a thriving natural world. The plan outlines a roadmap to improve the status of these criteria by:

  • Aligning relevant federal government departments and agencies
  • Fostering community-centered collaboration
  • Maximizing federal investments
  • Working towards equity and reduce disparities by providing sustainable resources to historically marginalized communities.

Additional legislation was introduced in the 117th congress that would support trauma-responsive, community-based, and preventative programming. Among these is The RISE (Resilience, Investment, Support, and Expansion) from Trauma Act, which CTIPP considers a “North Star” bill in the movement for trauma-responsive policies, is designed to promote upstream approaches to preventing trauma. You can view CTIPP’s Policy Brief on The RISE from Trauma Act, which would provide funding opportunities for community-based coalitions, establish training and certification guidelines for insurance reimbursement for community leaders addressing trauma, support hospital-based trauma interventions and recruit mental health clinicians to serve in schools, and enhance federal training programs within the U.S. Departments of Justice, Education, and Health and Human Services.

This Act received bi-partisan support in the 117th Congress but was halted in the Senate. CTIPP hopes to garner additional and continued support for this bill in 2023. CTIPP shared that people who are interested in urging Congress to prioritize addressing trauma and passing bills, like the RISE from Trauma Act, can sign this Call to Action.

In addition to their continued advocacy and education around legislative efforts to address trauma, CTIPP serves as a watchdog for many of these policies and the ways in which communities can leverage these new funding opportunities.

For more information from this Pathways Learning Network session, check out the blog on New Opportunities for Trauma-Responsive Policies and Programs in 2023, which provides an overview of incoming governors’ priorities.