Extending Trauma-Informed Care

To the Editor The recent JAMA Insights article by Drs Gerber and Adger Antonikowski emphasized the need for clinicians to recognize trauma’s pervasive impact and center safety, trust, and empowerment in medical encounters. Although the authors rightly highlight how trauma manifests in patients’ behaviors and health outcomes, a truly comprehensive trauma-informed approach should acknowledge that clinicians and other health care professionals—especially those from historically marginalized backgrounds—also navigate their own trauma histories, including systemic oppression, moral injury, and workplace discrimination. When health care systems fail to support clinicians in processing their personal trauma, it can create barriers that compromise their ability to recognize trauma responses in patients, maintain appropriate boundaries, or respond with the empathy and presence that trauma-informed care requires.