Gerontology

Mission

The PCTI lab is grounded in the understanding that trauma (including ageism, systemic inequities and personal life events) shapes the human experience across the lifespan. Therefore, person-centered, trauma-informed approaches require an understanding and appreciation of the aging process and how aging is influenced by adversity and resilience at the individual, community and societal levels.

In everyday times, trauma-informed care offers a way and means of connecting with and understanding each other more deeply. In trying times of scarcity and loss, of certain crises and uncertain future, person-centered, trauma-informed care provides a set of pliable, reliable skills to find healing and growth after suffering. Trauma-informed approaches are as necessary as hand hygiene, as essential to health and safety as universal precautions, offering a framework to prevent and protect from harm, when possible, and opening pathways for healing and recovery for  elders, loved ones, volunteers and staff.  

The trauma-informed movement is a rising force for organizational change and community health and wellness, this approach has only recently being integrated within aging services. Over the last decade, the federal government has issued important policy directives requiring aging services and long-term care providers to incorporate person-centered, trauma-informed practices. Taken together, these guidelines constitute important administrative and legislative policymaking from the Administration for Community Living (2018), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (2016) and the United States Congress via the Supporting Older Americans Act (2020 Reauthorization).

The PCTI Lab promotes care practices that are trauma-informed and healing-centered. Our work uplifts positive social connection and narrative approaches as essential to healing and recovery. The Lab collaborates with the Ageism and Elderhood and Abuse in Later Life Labs, as well as local, state and national partners. We aim to expand the reach and impact of PCTI approaches and to build a future where aging is valued as a time of resilience, growth and connection. Through interdisciplinary collaboration, community partnerships and innovative research, we hope to integrate PCTI principles into policy, practice and education to ensure that all people, regardless of age, can live with safety, autonomy, connection and purpose.