was aware of what experiencing trauma did to my patients’ bodies and minds, but did I understand the impact it had on me? As a medical educator, could I mentor learners if I didn’t understand this myself? Listening to accounts of injury, pain, and societal injustice can be countered by the privilege and joy of accompanying our patients on their often slow, sometimes tortuous journey toward healing.

https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783030043414 On sale through 9/30/2020.

Join us as we delve into the paradigm-shifting ethos of trauma-informed care with renowned expert Dr. Megan Gerber. Dr. Gerber is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and serves as Medical Director of Women’s Health for VA Boston where she directs the Women’s Health Fellowship. Dr. Gerber edited the textbook, “Trauma-informed Health Care Approaches: A Guide for Primary Care.” We discuss the framework for trauma-informed universal precautions, as well as bas

I enjoyed joining the Women-Centered Health Podcast hosts nursing scholars Drs. Nicole Loew and Stephanie Edmonds to talk about how to apply principles of trauma-informed care to our telehealth encounters. This is so critical during COVID-19 and beyond. http://womancenteredhealth.com/telehealth/

When I look at Victoria through a clearer lens, there are many clues—her anxiety, troubled marriage and family life, avoidance of physically intrusive examina- tions. I realize that I hardly know her at all. I focus on her health issues, and despite many stumbles, we have a nice rapport. I accept whatever she is willing to share about her tumultuous home life, but I do not ask how it all came to be so. Now I float with her in a reservoir of pain and shame.

It’s important to remember: There is no intrinsic difference between the psychological resilience of African Americans and white Americans. We unfortunately experience more stressors. Socioeconomic pressures, racism and microaggressions in the workplace are significant stressors that have been shown to increase the risk of mental illness in African Americans.

This pandemic renders everyone vulnerable to trauma, from those who are marginalized like the homeless, poor, and disabled to those who previously felt invincible and now realize they are neither immune to or insulated from this insidious virus. In addition to the urgent tasks of slowing the spread of infection and treating the ill, there must be a focus on implementing trauma informed care (TIC) at every level of care, in hospitals, doctors’ offices, and community settings.

Further, those who had reported the highest number of ACEs were also more likely to be currently facing "negative socioeconomic challenges" such as unemployment...CDC study was intriguing because it looked at factors such as "extreme poverty, experiences of discrimination, exposure to community violence [and] being placed in foster care," phenomena some previous studies" have overlooked.

Beautifully written book review by Dr. Eve Rittenberg of Harvard Medical School. https://www.sgim.org/File%20Library/SGIM/Resource%20Library/Forum/2019/SGIM-Oct-7.pdf

MOVING TOWARDS HEALING-CENTERED ENGAGEMENT: WHAT TRAUMA-INFORMED CARE CAN TEACH US ABOUT BURNOUT AND HEALING IN THE WORKPLACE Jessica Barnhill, MD; Joslyn W. Fisher, MD, MPH, FACP; Megan R. Gerber, MD, MPH; Amy Weil, MD, FACP https://www.sgim.org/File%20Library/SGIM/Resource%20Library/Forum/2019/SGIM-Sept-8.pdf

Dr. Gerber is a general internist who discusses adapting adult care for trauma-exposed persons.

I was honored to be a guest on the podcast, Physician's Guide to Doctoring and enjoyed my interview with Dr. Bradley Block who writes ' we start out defining trauma and then get introduced to trauma-informed care. Interfacing with the medical system and physicians can be traumatizing and triggering, so we discussed ways to minimize that, and why it actually isn’t important to identify who needs trauma informed care. We should be taking a “universal precautions” like approach. She teaches us...

The tone was angry, clipped, bitter despite my cheerful “welcome-to-the-practice” voice and outstretched hand. I was tired, so tired. Finally, Friday had come and here was an angry new patient. She seemed to be assuming I would let her down, disappoint. She seemed quite certain of it. The others certainly had. She wanted to know how often I would see her, and did I understand why she needed her medications? She let me know that she reads her chart notes, all of them. The other day the...

So pleased that KevinMD published this patient narrative. I was encouraged to share it here as well! https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2...romotes-healing.html By MEGAN R. GERBER, MD | CONDITIONS | JULY 26, 2019 As physicians, we face the formidable task of working with patients who appear angry, never content with care or “made better” by anything we do. They may be known as “difficult,” unpleasant, or demanding. These patients are the most challenging and often the least rewarding to care for.