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Accessing the Untouchables: The Touch Points to Change
Effective treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) requires helping the trauma survivor find ways of acknowledging the role of past trauma in shaping his or her present experience and creating a vision for the future. Without a roadmap, this seemingly simple task may confound both...
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FAST-PS: A New Initiative for Developing Novel Treatments for Psychosis and Other Mental Disorders
The National Institute of Mental Health will fund research at Columbia University Department of Psychiatry and New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI) to speed the development of effective psychotropic agents and improve treatment for those suffering from mental illnesses There is a serious...
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Healing PTSD Through Relationship and Touch
When six-year-old Mandi* came to us, she had suffered significant trauma in her early years from a drug-addicted mother, a father in prison, and several disrupted foster placements. She reacted to any limit setting with uncontrollable tantrums, terrorizing and discouraging her latest well-meaning...
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Integrative Treatment for Co-Occurring Disorders in Service Members, Veterans, and Military Families in a Civilian Inpatient Setting
Since September 11th, 2001, over two million United States service members have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Multiple factors related to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Global War on Terror (e.g., multiple deployments, length of deployments, intensity and nature of combat...
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Let’s Not Forget Older Veterans
Wilbur Cohen’s account of his post-war suffering in Arthur Kleinman’s wonderful book, What Really Matters1 begins with the following: “The war. It’s what happened to me in the war. I could never get over it. But I learned to live with it. Then all of a sudden on my sixtieth birthday it...
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Looking Beyond PTSD: Are We Ready for Our Returning Heroes?
With an estimated 30,000 troops expected home from Afghanistan next month, the question that must be asked is: “Is the United States ready to accept these veterans back into society? Is it ready to help them reacclimate, re-socialize, and reintegrate?” The answer is not a simple yes or no. To...
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Online Toolkit Aims to Support Mental Health Providers Serving Veterans in the Community
The Department of Veterans Affairs has developed a new online Community Provider Toolkit (www.mentalhealth.va.gov/communityproviders) aimed at delivering support, therapeutic tools, and resources to community providers treating Veterans for mental health concerns. “Many Veterans seek mental...
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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: The Person Within
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is not an inherent weakness in facing difficulty, nor is it a flaw in an individual’s personality, belief system, or values. The development and intensity of PTSD symptoms is concordant with the intensity and duration of the stressful event encountered. The...
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Addressing Gun Violence to Combat PTSD in Children
Children exposed to violence, especially gun violence, are at great risk of developing symptoms associated with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In fact, nearly 100% of children who have witnessed the violent death of someone they know, especially a family member, develop these debilitating...
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Practice Principles for Group Work with Children and Adolescents in the Aftermath of Disasters and Other Traumatic Events
Following are four interrelated and overlapping practice for group work with young people impacted by disasters and other traumatic events; to help them to build coping skills and overcome isolation. These principles can be (should be) incorporated into any evidence-based practice that utilizes...
