The Secondary Traumatic Stress Informed Organization Assessment (STSI-­OA)

Assessment Tool for Organizations

The Secondary Traumatic Stress Informed Organization Assessment (STSI-­OA)

Assessment Tool for Organizations

© Ginny Sprang, Leslie Ross, Kimberly Blackshear, Brian Miller, Cynthia Vrabel, Jacob Ham, James Henry, and James Caringi

center on trauma and children
STS practice lab

About the Assessment

The STSI-OA is an assessment tool that can be used by organizational representatives (at any level) to evaluate the degree to which their organization is secondary traumatic stress (STS) informed. It identifies specific areas of strength and opportunities to implement STS informed policies and practices.

The STSI-OA is used by organizations in a number of ways:

  1. To capture an initial or “baseline” assessment of how STS-informed employees perceive their organization to be.
  2. To develop organizational goals for administrative, practice, and policy changes.
  3. To capture changes in how STS-informed an organization is, as a means of monitoring and assessing for the effectiveness of implementation strategies for improving STS policies and practices (Sprang et al., 2017).

The results of this tool can be used as a roadmap for future training and implementation activities in the area of STS and trauma-informed care.

The link below will redirect you to the Center on Trauma & Children website maintained by the University of Kentucky. On this page, you can request a copy of the STSI-OA by submitting an online form.

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Additional Notes

In addition to English, the STSI-OA is available in Spanish and French.  There is also a Pandemic Version of the STSI-OA in English that specifically addresses how organizations can address pandemic conditions in their overall efforts to become STS-informed.

The STSI-OA was developed by a national group of experts in the field of STS, led by Dr. Ginny Sprang at the University of Kentucky Center on Trauma and Children (UK CTAC). For more information, contact Ginny Sprang, Ph.D. at sprang@uky.edu.

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