Grant Awards Fuel a New Era of Trauma Care Through the Milestones Resilience Care Model
By Brooks Robinson, Ph.D.
Recent grant awards are fueling new research into innovative approaches to trauma care at the Lyda Hill Institute for Human Resilience, supporting efforts to move beyond traditional, diagnosis‑driven treatment models. Current methods for helping individuals heal from traumatic stress focus on symptoms associated with a disease diagnosis (e.g. PTSD) and utilize intense exposure-based therapies. This process creates stigma, disempowers trauma survivors, and is not well tolerated. Unfortunately, a high number of these survivors are reticent to seek care given the fear of being stigmatized with a mental illness and, of those who do, an unacceptable number dropout of therapy (30-50%). Many trauma survivors instead seek respite from their distress by utilizing substances, often leading to addiction. Studies have estimate that 30-60% of individuals with PTSD also have a substance use disorder (SUD). These individuals have worse mental health outcomes following therapy and drop out of care at even higher rates when undergoing trauma processing therapies.
Milestones Resilience Care (Milestones) was developed to provide a new healing model that does not pathologize trauma survivors. In contrast, Milestones empowers individuals to take control of their healing journeys and engage in wrap-around, trauma-informed care that supports psychological strength, physical well-being, social connectedness, and purpose and meaning. Data from MRC participants indicate that the model successfully reduces posttraumatic stress symptoms, and also leads to robust improvement in functional resilience, social connection, and physical well-being (Benight et al., in press). The Milestones model has the potential to be a powerful option for trauma survivors that is effective, reduces stigma, and is empowering. We must perform critical research to lay the scientific foundation for Milestones, establishing it as a national model for posttraumatic care.
Therefore, the Lyda Hill Institute for Human Resilience has launched the Clinical Innovation Research Initiative and has been seeking funding for research on the Milestones model. Two grants have been recently awarded to kickstart the initiative. The first grant, awarded nearly $300,000 in December 2025, provides two years of funding to strategically plan a full-powered randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the Milestones model against usual care options as well as to pilot the use of intranasal oxytocin to augment a group intervention within Milestones. A second study awarded in March 2026, provides $275,000 for one year to develop and pilot a version of Milestones that integrates substance use care into the trauma healing focus. Both projects are underway with planned participant recruitment in summer/fall 2026. Getting funding for this critical research serves the dual purpose of establishing a scientific evidence base for innovations in trauma care while also providing direct services to trauma survivors in our community. The Institute has several more grant proposals under review that would fund the Clinical Innovation Research Initiative as we strive to develop the most impactful trauma healing solutions.
To learn more about Milestones Resilience Care and the important work that these grants are contributing to, visit the official webpage here.