What’s New

Interactive, Mobile Website to Aid Healthcare Providers in Notifying Family Members of Unexpected Deaths

Healthcare providers receive little training on notifying family members of a loved one's unexpected death. The way this information is delivered can have a long-lasting impact on a family's health and well-being. CSTS has developed an interactive, mobile website to serve as a guide for healthcare providers who may find themselves in these situations. https://www.cstsonline.org/notifying-family-members-after-unexpected-deaths.

Psychiatric Dimensions of Disasters: 2nd Training Course sponsored by Disaster Psychiatry Canada (DPC) June 8, 2019

The mission and vision of DPC is to develop and maintain a well trained committed team of psychiatric specialists able to serve the mental health needs of people and communities affected by disasters, in coordination with emergency and public health responders. Reduction and prevention of post-disaster mental illness, and fostering of resilience, are also our goals.

Training Course Learning Objectives: By the conclusion of the program, attendees will be able to: • Become skilled in psychiatric diagnosis and management: during and post disasters in adult, child and indigenous populations; • Experience and remedy stresses involved in disasters, and impact on survivors; • Become familiar with special needs of military personnel and veterans • Become adept at collaborating with Red Cross and First Responders • Have increased comfort and confidence in the role of ‘disaster psychiatrist’ • Be aware of College of Physicians mandated duties for physicians in disasters

Please click HERE to access video resources from this event.

DR. URSANO RECEIVES AMSUS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Dr. Robert Ursano, Director of CSTS, Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience of the USU, was awarded the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States (AMSUS). The AMSUS Lifetime Achievement Award is for a distinguished career of excellence in development, invention, and innovation in healthcare that is recognized internationally and makes significant fundamental contributions of lasting impact to better health outcomes in federal healthcare. AMSUS was founded by Congress in 1903 and is the Society of Federal Health Professionals.

DR. URSANO RECEIVES AMSUS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

PEARL HARBOR & PENSACOLA SHOOTINGS RESPONSE AND RECOVERY RESOURCES

Acts of mass violence, such as the shootings at Naval Shipyard Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida cause extreme disruption and distress for workers assigned to these facilities as well as the broader community. Victims, family and friends, first responders and emergency personnel, as well as workplace and community leaders are among those affected.

Click HERE for resources that provide disaster mental health information to assist families, responders, community leaders, and healthcare providers in response and recovery efforts.

New Fact Sheet: Helping Military Personnel Who Experience Work-Related Trauma Exposure

Service members may be repeatedly exposed to trauma in both combat and non-combat settings. Their exposure may be direct (witnessing), indirect (media exposure, videos, etc), or a combination of both. More distressing trauma of longer duration and repeated exposure can increase the risk for adverse effects, which negatively impact interpersonal relationships and operational readiness.

CSTS has developed a new fact sheet outlining before, during and after recommendations to aid military leaders in helping military personnel who experience work-related trauma exposure. The fact sheet can be accessed HERE

Army STARRS: Volume 3, Issue 5, Updated Oct 3, 2019

This document is an ongoing continuous summary of Army STARRS and STARRS-LS publications. Army STARRS (2009-2015) was the largest and most comprehensive research project of mental health among U.S. Army Soldiers ever conducted. The project was designed to examine a broad range of risk and resilience (protective) factors across a complex set of outcomes including suicidal behaviors and associated mental health issues. Army STARRS scientists created a series of large and extensive databases with the potential to achieve groundbreaking results. These databases allow scientists to investigate a diverse combination of factors from demographic, psychological, biological, neurological, behavioral, and social domains with the goal of generating actionable findings for the Army. The project was designed using an adaptive approach which means it evolved as new information became available over the course of the project. The research team shared preliminary findings, as they became available, with senior Army leadership so the Army could apply them to its ongoing health promotion, risk reduction, and suicide prevention efforts. The work is continuing under the STARRS Longitudinal Study (STARRS-LS) which runs from 2015 to 2020.

Joining Forces Joining Families, Fall 2019

The subject of the Fall 2019 issue of of Joining Forces Joining Families newsletter focuses on head trauma related to infant/child abuse, sometimes in the past referred to as “shaken baby syndrome,” but more accurately now called abusive head trauma (AHT). Previous issues of the newsletter can be found here.