Global Trauma Screening in Mental Health Care

Program sponsored by TCSPP Faculty Internationalization Grant from the Office of International Programs & Services.

This program, when attended in its entirety, offers 1.0 APA CEs for Psychologists, and 1.0 BBS California CEUs for LPCCs, LPSW, and LMFTs

Populations around the world who are exposed to life-threating events are often overlooked in trauma assessment and treatment. The review of trauma screening tools indicates a need for developmentally and linguistically appropriate, globally applicable, free, and easily accessible trauma screening instruments. The purpose of this workshop is to educate mental healthcare professionals about the Global Psychotrauma Screen (GPS; Olff et al., 2020) and the International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ; Cloitre et al., 2018) – free and easily accessible multilingual trauma screening and assessment instruments.
The GPS (Olff et al., 2020) has a potential for a more comprehensive screening of trauma because in addition to the PTSD, it includes Disturbances in Self-Organization (DSO) as part of Complex PTSD, the symptoms of anxiety, depression, sleep problems, self-harm, dissociation, other physical, emotional, and social problems, substance abuse, as well as the risk and protective factors, and functioning. If the GPS identifies traumatic symptoms, the ITQ can be administered to establish the symptoms of PTSD and Complex PTSD. The presenters will provide a hands-on training on how to administer both instruments; and calculate and interpret scores. Attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions and discuss the implications of global trauma screening and assessment tools for their professional practice and overall mental health care.

This program is free to attend

Presented by Emma Grace, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of international Psychology, TCSPP, Washington, DC Campus.

Dr. Emma Grace is an Associate Professor with the Department of International Psychology at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Washington, DC Campus. She teaches doctoral-level foundational and trauma-concentration courses in international psychology, research methods’ courses, and chairs numerous dissertation committees. Within the Global Collaboration on Traumatic Stress (GC-TS), an international network of trauma experts, Dr. Grace is the Project Leader of the Global Psychotrauma Screen (GPS) Child and Adolescent Project Group, a member of the GPS – Cross-Cultural Responses to COVID-19, and other GPS Project Group international research projects. Her current research is on validation of the GPS in U.S. adult population and adaptation of the GPS for children and adolescents in the US and other countries. She specializes in the areas of global mental health and trauma, humanitarian mental healthcare, mass psychogenic illness, mass violence, forced displacement, revenge ideation, radicalism, and suicide terrorism.

Presented by Prof. Dr. Miranda Olff, Amsterdam University Medical Centre, Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam Neuroscience & Amsterdam Public Health, location Amsterdam Medical Centre, ARQ National Psychotrauma Centre, Diemen, The Netherlands. Chair: ‘Neurobiological mechanisms of prevention and treatment in trauma and PTSD.’ Chair: Global Collaboration on Traumatic Stress.

Miranda Olff, PhD, is a world-renown expert in the field of psychological trauma. Her research focuses on psychological and biological responses to traumatic stress. Her research includes randomized controlled trials on the effects of early trauma interventions and treatment of PTSD patients, sex/gender differences after trauma, neuroimaging and neuroendocrine studies of PTSD; the effects of therapy on neurobiological variables; the psychopathology of injured patients admitted to the trauma unit, perinatal trauma, disaster research, epidemiological surveys on trauma and PTSD, threat and personal protection in politicians, and (coordination of) large EU funded projects on post disaster psychosocial care, or on e-Health applications. Mobile apps (for screening, assessment and support after trauma) and e-learning tools are currently being investigated. Prof. Dr. Olff led the NWO (Netherlands top organisation for scientific research) project studying the effects of intranasal oxytocin on brain functioning as well an 8-year Mental Health Cohort study on screening and prediction of PTSD trajectories (ZonMw). Other current projects include Prevalence of PTSD in the Netherlands, the Global Psychotrauma Screen, Violence in relationships, and several more.

Prof. Dr. Olff is leading the Centre for Psychological Trauma at the department of Psychiatry at the Amsterdam UMC (AMC) of the University of Amsterdam and is Director of Research & Strategy at the ARQ National Psychotrauma Centre (ARQ). She has distinguished professorships in Norway, China, and Iran. She has been trained in Corporate Governance and has several committee/advisory board positions (e.g., MH17 disaster foundation, The Violent Offences Compensation Fund). She also is a Past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS). Prof. Dr. Olff is Chair of the Global Collaboration on Traumatic Stress, a collaborative of traumatic stress societies who joined forces to tackle traumatic stress topics of global importance. In 2019, she received the Wolter de Loos Award for Distinguished Contribution to Psychotraumatology in Europe.