In 2020, MAHA received a grant from the Chicago Department of Public Health to expand access to culturally competent and trauma-informed mental health and psychiatric services to the underserved and low-income population of Armour Square and Brighton Park community areas. Our Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) program is an extension of Mayor Lightfoot’s “Framework for Mental Health Equity” in which our capacity to deliver TIC and integrated mental health services is to be expanded and partnerships are encouraged between community-based organizations.

We are taking many concrete steps to set up a system in order for both patients and healthcare providers within the organization to benefit from our new TIC program. For one, we have hired a consultant trauma expert to meet with and train staff on best practices for approaching and delivering TIC. We have also hired a contractual evaluator to support the agency’s workforce capacity for this program. Additionally, we are creating a TIC policy for our organization that we are excited to share soon. The TIC program also complements well other programs at MAHA, such as our work on substance abuse—that is, trauma and substance abuse often go hand in hand, and we are devoting resources to better understand trauma in all its forms to better support our patients, clients, and community. Our plan is to continue to circulate our newsletter with updates to our program to our collaborators and stakeholders.

Our TIC implementation domains and corresponding goals for the program are listed here.