Trauma-informed care can be championed by an individual at any level of an organization, but receiving buy-in from leadership is often a critical first step to sustaining any long-term commitment. Leadership support is essential to securing meaningful investments in trauma-informed care and spreading it throughout a health care organization or system. Senior leadership play an important role in communicating the benefits of trauma-informed care to generate organization-wide buy-in, allocating resources to train staff, and changing organizational policies and practices to promote trauma-informed approaches.

This technical assistance tool, made possible through support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, was informed by a series of interviews with key health care stakeholders, including health system executives, clinical administrators, and payers, to better understand what takes to “make the case” for broad adoption of trauma-informed care in the health care sector.  This tool is aimed at supporting champions when approaching leadership about the value of adopting a trauma-informed approach in health care settings. It offers key considerations for talking with leadership, and sample language that champions can use to tailor their pitch.