UC Davis Health is opening the first comprehensive trauma recovery center in Sacramento. The UC Davis CAARE Diagnostic and Treatment Center will establish the new center this summer, thanks to a nearly $1.2 million grant from the California Victim Compensation Board. CAARE stands for Child and Adolescent Abuse Resource and Evaluation.

Trauma recovery centers play a vital role in helping communities support victims of crime. They help manage cases and provide trauma-informed mental health care to crime victims from underserved communities. Many of the people they help are not eligible for victim compensation, and may be fearful of reporting a crime to law enforcement.

The center will begin providing services on Aug. 1, 2024. These will include:

• Timely bedside patient engagement at UC Davis Medical Center for mental health services
• Coordinated case management to support recovery
• Safety planning for crime victims and families
• Assertive outreach and collaboration with community partners to provide community services to victims of crime

“The CAARE Center has provided mental health services, coordinated case management and crisis intervention to victims of crime for over 20 years,” said CAARE Center Director Michele Ornelas Knight. “The UC Davis Trauma Recovery Center will allow us to expand our recovery services to a wider range of crime victims, including those who are typically unable to access traditional services.”

The CAARE Center will collaborate with the UC Davis Health Wraparound Program, a hospital-based violence intervention program, and the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program to provide trauma recovery center services. The center will be located with the Wraparound Program on the UC Davis Health campus. This will provide a multidisciplinary team approach to comprehensive services for victims of crime from infants to those age 30 years old.

The UC Davis Trauma Recovery Center will fill three service gaps:

1. It will make trauma-informed, culturally responsive and evidenced-based mental health treatment available to more children, adolescents and young adults who are victims of crime. “Effective services must include timely access to experienced trauma-informed therapists who can provide evidenced-based treatments across all stages of development,” Ornelas-Knight said.

2. It will fill the gap in services for underserved and vulnerable young adults who experience violent crime. These victims will receive timely, coordinated case management and mental health services to support healing and post-traumatic growth.

3. It will support continuity of care by providing victims access to longer-term mental health services when needed.

“We are looking forward to working with the CAARE Center to offer this new level of mental health support and recovery services to our trauma center patients,” said Christy Adams, registered nurse and coordinator for the Wraparound Program.