Introduction: Trauma-Informed Approaches Among the Adult Drug Court Settings

This opening chapter is the introduction for the intent of this book on the subject of Trauma-Informed Approaches Among the Adult Drug Court Setting. Its intention is to give an overview of all the parties involved in an adult drug court setting and how trauma-informed care (TIC) can be implemented. There has been much exploration regarding specialty courts taking an improved approach that represents the practices of trauma-informed care. Specialty courts were created as a tool to help facilitate a coordinated method to serve the community. Individuals involved in the justice system and experiencing co-occurring disorders that include substance use needed options where evidence-based practices, random drug testing, fair sanctions and incentives, and recovery support were readily available. The ultimate goal was to reduce recidivism and support participants with rebuilding a lifestyle they would not have had the resources to build on their own. All parties supporting participants in the specialty courts are responsible for building a working alliance. The clinicians serving with the treatment providers play a key role in implementing the pillars of TIC and can be guides to support other court staff with the particulars of operationalizing the components of TIC. For those clinicians who serve in adult treatment court settings, this will be an overview. For those clinicians not familiar with operating in such an environment, these professionals can develop the knowledge base to consider working in such a setting.