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In the coming years, the Israeli healthcare system is likely to face the challenge of unprecedented rates of trauma among patients and medical staff.

In the coming years, the Israeli healthcare system is likely to face the challenge of unprecedented rates of trauma among patients and medical staff.

System

 Broader promotion o Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) in the healthcare system, building an organizationally trauma-sensitive and resilient infrastructure.

Patient

Creating a care experience grounded in trust, choice, and safety, while recognizing how trauma shapes people's engagement with the medical system

Practitioner

Supporting the well-being of care teams and equipping them with tools to manage secondary trauma and prevent burnout.
 

About the Forum

The Forum for Advancing a Trauma-Informed Healthcare System was established in June 2023. It currently brings together leading organizations from civil society, the healthcare system, and academia, with additional organizations in the process of joining.

The Forum works across several tracks to embed trauma-informed care principles throughout the healthcare system:

Promoting health, preventing illness, extending life expectancy, and improving quality of life.

Gender, cultural, civic, and national equity

Promoting safety and creating a protected environment

Building trust and transparency in decision-making

Collaboration, solidarity, and mutual support

Emphasis on empowerment and providing choice

A focus on strengths, resilience, health, and hope

We aim to partner with a range of organizations and stakeholders, including healthcare providers, patients, health institutions, and government bodies.
 All of these are essential to creating and sustaining the change our system needs.

Our Vision

According to the World Health Organization, the prevalence of people experiencing at least one traumatic event in their lives is higher than 70%. Trauma can have a significant impact on both physical and emotional health, leading to increased morbidity, shortened lifespan, and changed patterns of thought, communication, and behavior. For people who have experienced a traumatic event in the past, seeking medical services can be difficult. Some may avoid it altogether, while others may excessively use it. However, if healthcare providers are not sensitive to the patient's history of trauma, it can lead to feelings of anxiety, misunderstanding, and disappointment. This can hinder the patient's health, as they may not seek follow-up treatment and preventive medicine.

A trauma-informed healthcare system strives to provide a safe environment for patients and healthcare professionals, preventing re-traumatization and secondary trauma. 

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Trauma-informed healthcare assumes that many individuals have undergone at least one traumatic event. The approach takes into account the effects of trauma on physical, mental, and behavioral outcomes.

A trauma-informed healthcare system actively seeks to create a safe healthcare environment, reducing the risk of patients experiencing re-traumatization and healthcare professionals experiencing secondary trauma.

 

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The Forum for Promoting Trauma-Informed Healthcare aims to facilitate healthcare that is aware of trauma and its effects on patients and providers.

Safety
 

Ensuring both physical and psychological safety for staff and individuals seeking services.

Trustworthiness and Transparency

Building trust through clear, consistent, and honest communication, ensuring that operations are open and understandable.

Peer Support and Mutual Self-Help

Using shared experiences of trauma and recovery to build trust, ensure safety, and foster connection.

Collaboration and Mutuality

Minimizing power differentials between staff and service users and emphasizing that healing occurs through shared decision-making.

Empowerment, Voice, and Choice

Focusing on validating strengths, fostering resilience, and enabling individuals to make decisions about their treatment and care.

Cultural, Historical, and Gender Issues

Moving beyond cultural stereotypes, recognizing historical trauma, and providing culturally responsive services that affirm individual identity.

The Forum will include and collaborate with various organizations and groups, including healthcare providers, patients, and health and government institutions. These channels are all crucial for creating and maintaining necessary changes in the system

The right to health is one of the most fundamental human rights. Only a healthcare system adapted to the effects of trauma can make that right a reality for everyone.

Member organizations

The cross-sector partnership is composed of organizations from the civil and public sectors, working together to achieve the shared goal of a trauma-informed healthcare system.

רקע

Resources

הילה טנא גלעד

Attorney Hila Tene-Gilad

Director of Forum Mabat

An attorney with over 25 years of legal experience, during which she led the field of human rights in international law at the Ministry of Justice.

She holds an LL.B. from the Hebrew University and a Master’s degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Management from the University of Haifa. She also serves as an external lecturer at Ben-Gurion University.

יעל

Yael Basford

Content creator, linguistic editor and translator

Has an MA in Clinical Psychology, writes content and User Experience dialogs, and is an editor and Hebrew-English-Hebrew translator.

ד"ר דפנה ערמון

Dafna Armon, M.D

Founder and Chairwoman

A psychiatrist with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and Biology, a Master's degree in Neurobiology, and a Medical Degree from Hebrew University. She has previously worked at the Lotem Center, which specializes in treating victims of sexual trauma at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, and at the Salit Center for women involved in prostitution. She currently serves as the Treasurer for the Israeli Society for Sexual Trauma Treatment & Prevention (ISTT).

דניאלה גנבר

Daniella Ganbar

Resource Development Consultant

Holds an MA in International Development with broad experience in resource development, fundraising, impact evaluation, and strategic writing.

Further Reading

Here you will find links to relevant resources and additional reading on Trauma-Informed Care, as well as research on trauma and its effects more broadly.

Practical Guide for Implementing a TI Approach
This practical guide builds on SAMHSA’s Concept of Trauma and TIP 57: Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services publications and is written to provide implementation strategies across multiple domains—from governance to staff training to evaluation—based on the original Concept of Trauma publication.

SAMHSA

Trauma-Informed Care: A Recommended Training Framework for Healthcare Teams
Preparation document for training or a lecture for healthcare teams on trauma-informed care.

The Forum for Promoting Trauma Informed Care and partners

Supporting the Helpers Through the Lens of the October 7, 2023 War
A document describing the impact of trauma exposure on healthcare and helping professionals and outlining ways to address these challenges at the personal, professional, and organizational levels. Led by the Taub Center in collaboration with the Forum and additional partners.

Nathan Lev, Yifat Ben David-Dror, Hadass Goldblatt, Dafna Armon, Shai Krontal, Guy Tavori, Nadav Davidovitch

Challenges Facing Care Providers Since the Outbreak of the October 7, 2023 War
An article discussing a policy paper on supporting helping professionals, authored by researchers from the Taub Center, the Universities of Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Ben-Gurion, the Forum for Advancing Trauma-Informed Healthcare, Shlomot Association, and other organizations working with trauma survivors.

Yuval Bagno, Maariv

How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime?
Childhood trauma isn’t something you just get over as you grow up. Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain. TEDTalk

Nadine Burke Harris

Trauma-Informed Rights and Benefits Navigation: A Guide for Advisors
Information for professionals on adapting services for individuals who have experienced trauma.

Adv. and MSW Liron David and MSW Yifat Ben David-Dror

Five Steps to Establishing a Trauma-Informed Women's Health Clinic
The Tamar Project was established in 2022 as Israel's first initiative of its kind to provide trauma-informed support within the Fertility and IVF Center of the Women's Division at Sheba Medical Center. The project team developed a guide outlining five foundational steps to help healthcare organizations prepare for and implement a transition to trauma-informed care in women's health services.

The Tamar Project, Sheba Medical Center

TIC in Healthcare - Practical Webinar
A short ±1 hour Webinar with do's and don'ts and TIC best practices for Medical care personnel

The Forum for Promoting Trauma Informed Care

The Purple Card
Patients with a history of sexual trauma may sometimes avoid seeking medical care because of concerns about disclosure, vulnerability, or being overwhelmed by traumatic memories. The Purple Card lets patients indicate sexual trauma and suggest care adaptations without direct discussion, enabling sensitive, trauma-informed healthcare.

Dafna Armon, MD, HIPAM, Briah Foundation

National Program for Creating a Trauma-Informed Healthcare System
A strategic plan to transform the healthcare system into one that is responsive to the needs of individuals who have experienced trauma. The program was developed in collaboration with leading experts and organizations in the field.

The Forum for Promoting Trauma Informed Care and partners

What is Trauma-Informed Care?
An online resource for learning about Trauma-Informed Care.

Trauma-Informed Care, Implementation and Resource Center

About the Ace Study
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have a tremendous impact on future violence victimization and perpetration, and lifelong health and opportunity. CDC works to understand ACEs and prevent them.

CDC

Building a Trauma-Informed Healthcare System Is an Urgent Priority
An opinion piece on the urgency of advancing trauma-informed practices across the healthcare system.

Professor Nadav Davidovitch

National Program for Creating a Trauma-Informed Healthcare System – Presentation
A presentation outlining the national plan to transition to a healthcare system that is responsive to the needs of individuals who have experienced trauma.

The Forum for Promoting Trauma Informed Care and partners

Pocket Guide to Trauma-Informed Medical Encounters
Practical step-by-step guide to providing health services in a trauma-informed manner.

The Forum for Promoting Trauma Informed Care

Trauma And Memory
At its heart, TRAUMA AND MEMORY makes one crucial argument: collective memory, whether conceived of as trauma or, simply, “history,” fundamentally takes work.

Austin Sarat, Nadav Davidovitch, and Michal Alberstein

רקע

Contact Us

We will be happy to receive inquiries through the attached form with questions, comments or thoughts regarding trauma-adapted treatment and the forum's activity

Contact Us

We will be happy to receive inquiries through the attached form with questions, comments or thoughts regarding trauma-adapted treatment and the forum's activity

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