title: An update on the South Carolina trauma initiative.
abstract: Seven years ago the South Carolina Department of Mental Health developed a statewide effort to improve its response to consumers who are trauma survivors. The initiative's goals included sensitizing stakeholders to the impact of trauma, influencing policies, educating and training clinicians, addressing concerns about the safety and dignity of psychiatric settings (for example, sanctuary trauma), and increasing knowledge by supporting a strong empirical research platform. In the brief report presented here, the authors describe the past seven years in terms of obstacles encountered, progress, and future directions of this initiative in the hope of providing information and guidance to other state systems.
authors.affiliation: Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 725 Airport Rd., CB 7590, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. kcusack@schsr.unc.edu
authors.forename: Karen J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Cusack
authors.forename: Christopher B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Wells
authors.forename: Anouk L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Grubaugh
authors.forename: Thomas G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Hiers
authors.forename: B Christopher
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Frueh
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D013022:South Carolina; D017741:Survivors; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000523:psychology*