The CDC statistics on abuse and violence in the United States should yield a high level of concern for everyone. The CDC reports that one in four children experiences maltreatment (physical, sexual, or emotional abuse) in this nation. One in four women have experienced domestic violence. Additionally, one in five women and one in 71 men have experienced sexual assault at some point in their lives — 12% of these women and 30% of these men were younger than 10 years old when they were assaulted. This means a very large number of people have experienced serious trauma at some point in their lives which warrants universal precautions to care and treatment.

A trauma-informed child and family mental health system is one in which we recognize and respond to the impact of traumatic stress on everyone within the system including children, caregivers, and service providers. Programs and agencies within such a system infuse and sustain trauma awareness, knowledge, and skills into their organizational cultures, practices, and policies (Bloom, 2013). Organizations act in collaboration with all those who are involved with the child and family system, integrate the best available science and neurosequential approach treatment approaches to achieve physical and psychological safety. This relational theoretical framework serves to facilitate the recovery of the child and family, and support their ability to thrive.

Firefly practices through a trauma-informed perspective includes:

Routine screening for trauma exposure and related symptoms.

The use evidence-based, culturally responsive assessment and treatment for traumatic stress and associated mental health symptoms.

Strives to make resources available to children, families, and providers on trauma exposure, its impact, and treatment.

Engages in efforts to strengthen the resilience and protective factors of children and families impacted by and vulnerable to trauma.

Assesses and addresses parent and caregiver trauma and its impact on the family system.

Whenever possible advocates for continuity of care and collaboration across child-service systems. 

Continuously evaluates and makes changes to create an environment of care for staff that addresses, minimizes, and treats secondary traumatic stress to support staff wellness.

These activities are rooted in an understanding that trauma-informed agencies, programs, and service providers:

Work through a relational theoretical framework to build meaningful partnerships with children, caregivers and community partners.

Address the intersections of trauma with culture, history, race, gender, location, and language, acknowledge the compounding impact of structural inequity, and are responsive to the unique needs of diverse communities.

Trauma intersects in many different ways with culture, history, race, gender, location, and language. Firefly acknowledges the compounding impact of structural inequity and are responsive to the unique needs of diverse communities. Firefly's research agenda includes a social justice platform to bridge social determinants of health with an expanded adverse childhood experiences evaluation measure. Cultural awareness, responsiveness, and understanding are essential to increasing access and improving the standard of care for traumatized children, families, and communities globally. Eliminating disparities in trauma services requires culturally responsive involvement across service sectors, communities, organizations, neighborhoods, families, and individuals in order to reduce barriers, overcome stigma, address social adversities, strengthen families, and encourage positive ethnic identity is an ongoing advocacy and research effort for Firefly.

Enhancing cultural competence and encouraging cultural humility are essential to increasing access and improving the standard of care for traumatized children, families, and communities across the nation. 

The intersections between culture and trauma Firefly seeks to address include topics such as:

Political change and minority cultures

Infant toddler mental health and trauma

Disrupted attachment and trauma

Refugee and immigrant youth

Disparities in mental health care (social determinants of health)

Racial injustice and trauma

Cultural and linguistic competency in child trauma services

Historical trauma

Trauma in LGBTQ youth

Secondary traumatic stress is the emotional duress that results when an individual hears about the firsthand trauma experiences of another. These experiences can give rise to significant emotional and behavioral problems which profoundly disrupt all the lives involved with the adversity and trauma treatment. For therapists, care coordinators, DHS workers, first responders and other helping professionals both at Firefly and within our community involved in the care, the essential act of listening to trauma stories take an emotional toll which compromises functioning and diminishes quality of life. Individual and supervisory awareness of the effects of this indirect trauma exposure is an essential part of protecting the health of the worker and ensuring that children consistently receive the best possible care from those who are committed to helping them. Firefly's goal and mission includes evaluating and re-evaluating the system, provides time for reflection and awareness of trauma stewardship and works to create a community of support. Firefly also believes that policy and procedures at the state and federal level including insurance company changes, funding and mandates can create an undue burden for engaging in trauma-informed care practices. Firefly engages in efforts towards advocacy at the macro level to create sustainable care practices for providers and organizational systems.