List core principles of trauma-informed care.

• A. Isolation; secrecy; manipulation; rigid hierarchy
• B. Profitability; speed; competition; standardization
• C. Safety; trustworthiness and transparency; peer support; collaboration and empowerment; cultural, historical, and gender considerations
• D. None of the above

Answer: (C)

Trauma-informed care centers on creating environments that recognize how trauma affects people and actively works to reduce harm while supporting healing. The best answer reflects this by listing safety as a foundation to prevent harm, trustworthiness and transparency to build reliable and honest relationships, peer support to connect individuals with others who have lived experience, collaboration and empowerment to involve people in decisions about their care, and attention to cultural, historical, and gender considerations to honor diverse backgrounds and experiences of trauma.

These elements together form a person-centered approach that prioritizes safety, trust, and empowerment. The other options describe conditions that can perpetuate harm—isolation, secrecy, manipulation, and a rigid hierarchy—while the second set emphasizes business aims like profitability and speed over care, which do not align with trauma-informed principles.