The past few months have been a challenging time for everyone. New "norms" at home and at work continue to evolve while people balance all of the issues that relate to keeping our families, workplaces, and communities safe and healthy and attempting to address the many system inequities related to poverty and race that the pandemic has shone a light on.

As things move forward, I hope that our team can share some of the resources that we see along the way. By themselves, these tools won't solve the long-term issues we are all facing but may offer some concrete, trauma-informed steps that people can take as they address their evolving situations.

As I work with physical and behavioral health providers, I'm hearing stories of the benefits and challenges of having staff work from home or in the office as well as client stories of connecting with providers in those same settings. Some are more than ready to get back to "normal" - many more aren't so sure what that is anymore. As many of you know, collecting, analyzing, and honoring staff and client feedback is a key principle in creating trauma-informed systems. Today, I'd like to share a couple of resources that we received from the National Council for Behavioral Health to assess staff readiness to return to a more formal work setting as well as assessing the readiness of clients and their families to begin receiving in-person services. Consider how you might adapt the questions to fit your organization or the people you serve.

I'll be placing these resources in our library on this page. Please feel free to help us build this toolkit by sharing or posting resources here that you have found to be helpful or send them to me and I'll post them for you.

We look forward to seeing you all again soon. In the meantime, stay safe and healthy!

V