Treatment of PTSD of PTSD in children and adolescents

ESTSS – Workshop 2
Friday, 11.06.2010, 14.00 – 17.30

CV / Biographical Sketch:
Rita Rosner  Ph. D. - My current position is that of a professor at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich and I work as a therapist at our outpatient treatment centre. My research includes traumatized children, posttraumatic growth and complicated grief.

As a former President of the German-speaking Society for Traumatic Stress (DeGPT), which during my presidency grew from 600 members to almost double that number, I am familiar with the issues of growing professional societies and it is with this knowledge and experience that I hope to serve the ESTSS.

For me, the ESTSS not only means superb conventions, a very helpful website, and fruitful research contacts: I also see the ESTSS as our future European umbrella organisation. We do need a strong umbrella organisation as many core issues in the area of trauma do not stop at country borders. To master these tasks we need to strengthen our cross-European exchange in the areas of clinical work, research and training, and I am very enthusiastic about participating in and contributing to this process.

Abstract:

On successful completion of the workshop, students will be able to:

• Describe the commonly used psychological and pharmacological treatments with children and adolescents including age-appropriate applications of cognitive behavioural therapy, eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing, play therapy, family therapy and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
• Describe the theoretical basis and healing elements of treatments for PTSD in children and adolescents.
• Describe the current evidence base for the effectiveness and underlying mechanisms of the treatment approaches for PTSD in children and adolescents
  

Early Intervention following Traumatic Events     

ESTSS – Workshop 4
Sunday, 13.06.2010, 11.00 - 13.00

CV / Biographical Sketch:

Brigitte Lueger-Schuster

I am an Austrian clinical psychologist and supervisor. Since 1990 I have worked in the Department of Clinical Psychology at the University of Vienna. As a result of the University Project "Hosting Bosnian Refugees" I have made contact with traumatised people. As a result I became more and more competent in the field of complex trauma after war and torture. I currently hold the position of scientific-strategic chief psychologist at the department of civil protection and crisis management for the City of Vienna on a voluntary basis.

I have edited and written books with topics on disaster, children and migration. I am involved in research on cognitive changes after trauma and memory-processes in the population born during world-war-II. For the ESTSS I bring practical and scientific experiences as a clinical psychologist across a broad range of psychotraumatology. I will emphasise interdisciplinary work and ethical problems in trauma research. Further topics I am interested in are the gender perspective and networks in disaster-management across Europe.

I am experienced in working in national and international commissions, committees and boards, in a scientific context. I like to bring in the experience of a small country full of trauma-history due to Europe's past.

Miranda Olff

Miranda Olff is associate professor in the field of psychotrauma and specialized in research on psychobiological aspects of trauma and stress. She is head of the Centre for Psychological Trauma at the department of Psychiatry at the Academic Medical Centre of the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and has a visiting professorship in Norway.

The centre offers ambulant treatment for patients with posttrauma psychopathology. She has been trained in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Brief Eclectic Psychotherapy for PTSD (BEP) and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing therapy (EMDR). She has done several treatment studies as well as psychobiological studies in the field of (traumatic) stress, anxiety and depression.
Current research includes randomized controlled trials on different forms of debriefing, early interventions and psychotherapy in traumatized patients. The psychobiological research includes neuroimaging studies of patients with post traumatic stress disorder, neuroendocrine aspects of PTSD. Disaster related research include for instance Enschede firework disaster. An epidemiological survey on mental health problems in Afghanistan as well as a large epidemiological survey on trauma and PTSD in the Netherlands have been conducted and politicians' responses to terrorist threat and personal security measures have been examined. A large study on the incidence, prevention and prediction of posttrauma psychopathology at the trauma unit as a consequence of a severe accident is ongoing as well as study on the effect of cortisol administration and a large trial comparing efficacy of trauma focused CBT to medication.

Abstract:

On successful completion of the workshop, students will be able to:

• Describe the commonly used approaches to early intervention following traumatic events and the rationale behind them including blanket intervention, targeted interventions and the timing of them.
• Describe specific interventions including critical incident stress debriefing, psychological debriefing, psychological first aid, critical incident stress management, trauma risk management, supportive counselling and trauma focused cognitive behavioural therapy.
• Discuss the current evidence base for the effectiveness of early interventions following traumatic events.

First Psychological Aid & Rapid Stabilization Techniques      

ESTSS – Workshop 5
Sunday, 13.06.2010, 10.30 - 13.00

CV / Biographical Sketch:
Erik L.J.L. De Soir, MScMy academic training is that of a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist but it is especially my work and practical experience as a military psychologist combined with that of a voluntary fire-fighter and paramedic that underlie my candidacy for the ESTSS Board. It is this background that has taught me the importance of the interactions between trauma scientists, on the one hand, and trauma practitioners working at the grass-roots level, on the other.

In 1993, I started to build a Europe-wide counselling and acute-support peer network for the management of traumatic stress in fire, rescue, police and emergency medical services. In 2003, I founded the European Association of Fire & Rescue Psychologists (EAFRP). The last years I have been an ex-officio board member of the ISTSS, and have served as the Vice-President of ALFEST (the largest European French-speaking trauma society). As a candidate for a post on the board of the ESTSS I would advocate the further international development of the ESTSS as the umbrella society for other groups working with trauma. My candidacy comes from my special interest in intercultural networking and my desire to build bridges, connecting with other-language trauma societies.

Abstract:
On successful completion of the workshop, students will be able to:

• Provide a summary of the most prominent predictors of posttraumatic stress in qadult survivors and identify possible peritraumatic support actions
• Identify and describe the successive steps in psychological stabilization of shocked victims and/or severely wounded victims
• Describe the theoretical basis of the physiological/psychological healing mechanisms of psychological stabilization 
• Identify and describe the current evidence base for the effectiveness and basic ingredients of first psychological aid