In order to improve mental health care for trauma survivors following the events of October 7, 2023 and the Iron Swords War, clinicians in the field are required to refine and standardize processes of assessment, treatment matching, and ongoing monitoring.

The purpose of the Trauma-Informed Clinics framework is to provide clear professional benchmarks for clinics operating in the field of trauma care, with specific reference to their processes of assessment, treatment matching, and monitoring.
This framework enables clinic directors and leaders of mental health organizations in Israel to evaluate whether a clinic operates with organizational and clinical processes that allow for the most accurate and effective treatment possible for trauma survivors.

In doing so, it seeks to encourage clinics to move from general care to managed care, in order to improve the quality of treatment in the field and to deliver care in a way that ensures the greatest benefit to those most in need.

It is important to emphasize that the integration of managed care within clinics should be viewed as an ongoing and dynamic process, to be implemented with sensitivity and sound managerial judgment. The Trauma-Informed Clinics model offers an ideal yet flexible framework for guiding the management of clinics treating post-traumatic conditions.

The framework is intended to support clinic directors and leaders of mental health organizations in Israel in evaluating their adherence to recommendations that promote accurate, effective, and equitable care, while encouraging continuous improvement.

The recommendations are designed to be implemented in a versatile manner, while preserving each clinic’s autonomy and freedom of management, in accordance with its unique characteristics and needs. We recognize that the conditions are now in place for the broader mental health system to transition toward managed care, while also acknowledging the challenges inherent in such a transformation.

In our assessment, the field of treatment for post-trauma conditions is particularly well-suited for this transition, given the presence of measurable and monitorable symptoms, as well as the structured treatments commonly used in this domain.

Our hope is that the treatment of post-trauma conditions will serve as a breakthrough in the implementation of managed care within mental health services. We further hope that organizational systems, for example compatible information systems, will support the integration of processes that accelerate the adoption of managed care in post-trauma treatment specifically, and in mental health care more broadly.