Featured Presentations

Thursday, November 3, 11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

Preventing Psychological and Moral Injury in Military Service: Summing Up

Jonathan Shay, MD, PhD
MacArthur Fellow, Newton, Massachusetts, USA

Technical Level: Introductory

This presentation is the presenter’s summary of 15 years of writing, speaking and working with military organizations on preventing psychological and moral injury in military service. The principles explained here may have broader applications, especially to occupational risks of traumatic stress, such as in journalism, civilian uniformed services, psychological and physical health care, disaster relief, but attendees will have to translate for their own settings. Three things protect the mind and spirit of people who train for and go to war:

The presenter’s work has focused on changing policy, practice and culture within military organizations in ways that remove obstacles to and actively promote the achievement of the aforementioned factors. The presentation will offer concrete examples of the above:

Prevention engages the whole human critter: brain, mind, society, culture and dynamics of mental health both during and after military deployment.

Thursday, November 3, 2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.

Mental Health Implications of the Gulf Oil Spill

Joy Osofsky, PhD1; Howard Osofsky, MD, PhD1; Anthony Speier, PhD2; Bernard D. Goldstein, MD3; Nicole Lurie, MD4
1Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
2Office of Behavioral Health, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
3University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
4U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C., USA

Technical Level: Intermediate

This presentation will focus on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, mental health symptoms soon after the disaster, potential future sequelae and efforts to address symptoms and build individual and community resilience. Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Department of Psychiatry has been conducting mental health needs assessments in heavily impacted areas for the State Department of Social Services and Office of Behavioral Health. Results show the greatest effects on mental health relate to disruption on lives, work and relationships, including family and social engagement, with increased symptoms of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress. For communities impacted by Hurricane Katrina, previous losses, including relationships with family, friends and community were associated with negative mental health outcomes.

Conversely, the ability to rebound after adversity was associated with better mental health outcomes. Current efforts in Louisiana, together with other Gulf States, and the Department of Health and Human Services, including National Institutes of Health, Center for Disease Control and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration are addressing questions related to mental health, medical, ecological and toxicological concerns. Enhanced understanding of mental health effects following the Gulf Oil Spill will help determine directions for mental health services, contribute to knowledge of complex traumatization during the lifespan and factors, such as social support, that contribute to resilience and the ability to rebound following adversity.

Thursday, November 3, 8:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.

Movie: The Interrupters

An award-winning film from Steve James (Hoop Dreams) and Alex Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here) that tells the moving and surprising story of three “violence interrupters” in Chicago who with bravado, humility and even humor try to protect their communities from the violence they are once employed.

Friday, November 4, 8:00 a.m. – 9:15 a.m.

The September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks: Ten Years After

Cloitre, Marylene, PhD1; Neria Yural, PhD2; Alison Holman, PhD, FNP3; Roxanne Silver, PhD3; Claude Chemtob, PhD4
1NCPTSD-Dissemination & Education Div, Palo Alto Healthcare System, Menlo Park, California, USA
2Columbia University Department of Psychiatry and New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York, USA
3University of California, Irvine, California, USA
4Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA

In recognition of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorists attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, this panel provides clinical, epidemiological and social-genetic perspectives on risk, resiliency and recovery across the 9/11 decade. The panel will report on the results of a nationwide longitudinal study of posttraumatic stress across the past ten years. A detailed analysis of the effects of exposure among adolescents, children and families regarding suicidality and PTSD will be presented. In addition, both clinical and research perspectives and experiences regarding the treatment of PTSD, depression and bereavement will be discussed. Lastly, an analysis of 9/11 as an experience of collective stress will be proposed with a specific focus on the interaction of social constraints and genetic vulnerability on mental health.

Friday, November 4, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

ISTSS Early Career Panel

Adam Brown, PhD1; Amit Etkin, MD2; Shira Maguen, PhD3; Thomas Neylan, MD3; Angela Nickerson, PhD4
1New York University, New York, New York, USA
2Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, USA
3University of California San Francisco; San Francisco VA Medical Center, San Francisco, California, USA
4VA Boston and the University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Technical Level: Introductory

The transition from graduate training and postdoctoral fellowships to a career in the field of traumatic stress brings with it a sense of accomplishment, along with many new challenges and opportunities. This is especially true at a time when mental health professions in general, and the field of traumatic stress in particular, are rapidly changing, and at a time when balancing personal and professional goals can be quite complex. This panel serves as an opportunity to hear speakers from various career paths and stages discuss their personal experiences and offer advice on navigating the many choices faced by those entering this phase of their career. Panelists will discuss how changes in the conceptual framework of PTSD are impacting professional goals and opportunities, obtaining early career funding, living and working internationally, creating work-life balance, mentorship and supervision, and the expectations of principal investigators, departments and institutions. This panel will also serve as an opportunity for early career professionals, as well as students and trainees, to network and discuss their own experiences.

Friday, November 4

2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. - Movie: Prisoner of Her Past Part I: Introduction and Screening

3:30 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. - Movie: Prisoner of Her Past Part II: Panel & Audience Discussion

Filmmakers Howard Reich & Gordon Quinn, Harold Kudler, MD, Joseph Albeck, MD, Yael Danieli, PhD, Howard Osofsky, MD, PhD, Joy Osofsky, PhD

Film screening of the award-winning documentary about the haunting story of a secret childhood trauma surfacing, 60 years later, to unravel the life of Holocaust survivor Sonia Reich, followed by panel and audience discussion.

On a frigid evening in February 2001, a 69-year-old woman packed her clothes into two shopping bags, put on her coat, locked the door to her Chicago area home and fled. She told the police officers who found her and the doctors who evaluated her that someone was trying to kill her. In November 2003, her son, Chicago Tribune jazz critic, Howard Reich, who, had been told as a child to keep his Jewishness a secret, published a widely-read news article linking his mother’s behavior to her childhood Holocaust experiences and suggesting that she suffers a prevalent, but grievously under-recognized, disorder: Late-Onset PTSD. Reich’s article and follow-up book uncovering his mother’s past and exploring his relationship with her have now been transformed into an award-winning documentary by Kartemquin Films, producers of the acclaimed Hoop Dreams. Part I of this presentation of the ISTSS Special Interest Group on Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma and Resilience begins with an introduction by Howard Reich and the film’s producers followed by a screening of Prisoner of Her Past. Part II will feature a panel discussion of the film.

Following the screening of the award-winning documentary, Prisoner of Her Past, in Part I of this presentation of the ISTSS Special Interest Group on Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma and Resilience, Part II features an expert panel which will discuss the film and its implications for the field of traumatic stress. Participating will be child psychologist Joy Osofsky and child psychiatrist Howard Osofsky whose work with child survivors of Hurricane Katrina is featured in the film; psychiatrist and poet Joseph Albeck whose medical and creative writing are informed by his experience as the child of Holocaust Survivors; and psychologist Yael Danieli whose seminal work on intergenerational transmission of trauma and resilience and on the “conspiracy of silence” surrounding trauma in many families provides a theoretical frame for this session. Following brief comments from each, panelists will engage the filmmakers and the audience in discussion of intergenerational transmission and the concept of Late-Onset PTSD.

Friday, November 4, 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Forging Social Bonds Through Dance: The Chitresh Das Dance Company in the Red Light District of Kolkata

Session Chair: Lynn C. Waelde, PhD, Palo Alto University

Join us for a video documentary, lecture, and dance demonstration offered by principal dancers of the Chitresh Das Dance Company who have used an Indian classical dance form to empower children of prostitutes in the Red Light District of Kolkata.

Dancers: Charlotte Moraga, Rachna Nivas, Anjali Nath from the Chitresh Das Dance Company, San Francisco, California.

Saturday, November 5, 11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

ISTSS Treatment Guidelines for Complex Trauma

Marylène Cloitre, PhD1; Christine Courtois, PhD2; Stuart Turner, MD, MA, FRCP, FRCPsych3; Ruth Lanius, MD, PhD4; Julian Ford, PhD5
1NCPTSD-Dissemination & Education Div, Palo Alto Healthcare System, Menlo Park, California, USA
2Courtois & Associates, PC, Washington, DC., USA
3Trauma Clinic, London, United Kingdom
4University Hospital, London Health Science Centre, London, Ontario, Canada
5University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut, USA

Technical Level: Intermediate

The proposed ISTSS treatment guidelines for complex PTSD and related disorders will be presented (Cloitre). The treatment guidelines provide recommendations for the treatment of populations who have been exposed to prolonged and typically multiple forms of interpersonal trauma. Particular attention will be given to the treatment of individuals with early life trauma (Courtois) and to the application of the guidelines to refugees and others who have been exposed to torture, genocide and other forms of organized violence (Turner). Neurobiological evidence for the impact of prolonged trauma on capacity for emotional awareness and modulation as well as social bonds and relational capacities will be presented (Lanius). The panel will conclude with a summary of future directions in the treatment of and research about complex trauma populations (Ford).

Calendar of Events

February 1, 2012
Presentation proposal submission site opens

March 15, 2012, 5 p.m. CST
Presentation proposal submission deadline