The Co-Production of the Roots Framework: A Reflective Framework for Mapping the Implementation Journey of Trauma-Informed Care

BackgroundThe trauma-informed care programme at the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys Foundation NHS Trust identified a need to evaluate the ongoing service-wide trauma-informed care implementation effort. An absence of staff, service user and system-related outcomes specific to trauma-informed care presented barriers to monitoring the adoption of trauma-informed approaches and progress over time across the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys Foundation NHS Trust. This paper describes the co-production of a new self-assessment tool, Roots, a discussion-based framework that facilitates learning and improvement by reflecting on positive or negative examples of trauma-informed services. MethodsUsing secondary data obtained from an affiliated national trauma summit and instruments found in literature, domains and items were co-produced with the help of trauma-informed care leads, NHS staff and service users. The research design consisted of community-based co-production methods such as surveys, focus groups, and expert consultations. ResultsAdopting trauma-informed care requires enthusiasm and commitment from all members of the organisation. Services must adapt to meet the dynamic needs of staff and service users to ensure they remain trauma-informed; this must be done as a community. ConclusionsFollowing an extensive co-production process, the Roots framework was published open-access and accompanied by a user manual. Roots can provide both qualitative and quantitative insights on trauma-informed care implementation by provoking the sharing of experience across services.