Understanding trauma-informed care across settings

New research from Ann MacRae’s PhD offers a practical model and framework to guide trauma-informed care across settings, including residential aged care.

Trauma-informed care (TIC) is not a new concept however it has evolved over the past 25 years as it is adopted across a variety of settings. As part of her PhD research looking into the development of a TIC intervention for residential aged care (RAC), it became clear that there is no singular understanding of what TIC is. Without this clarity, implementation of TIC - particularly into new settings - is challenging. Ann’s recent publication, Understanding trauma-informed care across settings: A contemporary definition, values, model and framework from an integrative review (MacRae et.al, 2026), responds to this gap by synthesising 288 international academic and grey literature sources to clarify how TIC is understood and applied across settings.

A common misconception is that TIC is just an extension of person-centred care or that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) model is a complete solution. While there are overlaps, the new research findings show that TIC goes further - requiring a whole-of-organisation approach that embeds an understanding of trauma into every aspect of care delivery, culture, and systems. The framework developed proposes a contemporary definition of TIC that incorporates 10 core values. The framework presents 10 principles and 28 components of TIC with common strategies for operationalisation against these. The model organises the components into a hierarchical structure to support implementation in real world settings.

Despite growing interest, and policy and legislative requirements, there is currently no clear framework to guide TIC in RAC settings (MacRae et al, 2023). This publication offers much-needed guidance for RAC, where formal TIC frameworks have been lacking, and has broader relevance for other settings where trauma-informed approaches are still emerging. This work is a key step in Ann’s PhD, supporting the development of a tailored TIC intervention for RAC and helping translate theory into meaningful, system-wide change.