Trauma And Secondary Trauma

In Jennifer Cisney’s lecture on “Impact Dynamics of Crisis and Trauma,” she outlined four major goals of Psychological First Aid. Above all the material in Module One, I found this specific material most helpful in my practice because it gives me focal points to ensure I am putting the correct focus on Psychological First Aid that I should. We have been learning the critical important of this First Aid to trauma survivors and how if they can be “triaged” correctly by these First Aid components it greatly impacts the person’s recovery.

Van der Kolk (1987) notes that human responses to trauma are relatively constant across various types of traumatic stimuli, where individuals have poor tolerance to arousal stimuli and may experience social and emotional withdrawal. These changes in the body’s arousal and perception prevent the continuance of “normal” life, and require help.

Treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder is possible. The current treatment of PTSD encompasses several types of psychotherapy combined with a medication regimen. Cognitive therapy is one type of therapy used to combat PTSD. The goal of cognitive therapy is to allow the patient to slowly experience feelings, thoughts, and events associated with the trauma in a controlled setting. This allows the PTSD sufferer, to categorize the traumatic feelings associated with the event and assign a more positive meaning to them. Thus providing a coping mechanism. Another school of thought places the therapeutic focus on gradually exposing the PTSD sufferer to elements of the trauma. The goal is to desensitize the patient to the traumatic event. This allows the patient to resume a normal life. One other form of therapy used in treatment of PTSD is EMDR. EMDR or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a form of exposure therapy that places the emphasis on guided eye movements. The theory is that the movements help retrain how the brain reacts to memories of the traumatic event. Success has

According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, “PTSD can make people feel very nervous or ‘on edge’ all the time. Many feel startled very easily, have a hard time concentrating, or have problems sleeping well” (Association, 2016). These conditions make it hard for first responders to continue working resulting in “overwhelming exhaustion, feelings of cynicism and detachment to the job, and a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment” (Cigognani, 2009,

Emergency rescue personnel witnessed the loss of loved ones, furthermore during recovery and rescue efforts they were limited in the amount of debriefing and clinical mental support they received. Priorities at the time focused on saving lives, while mental deterioration was taking place in many simultaneously. “A study published in the Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine found a 71.8% prevalence of PTSD among exposed first responders as opposed to 51.4% among their unexposed counterparts” (Bills et al., 2008). In a 9-year longitudinal cohort study with data gathered from 27,449 participants, including a population of police officers and firefighters among other rescue workers; the cumulative results yielded a 9.3% incidence of PTSD, 8.4% panic disorder, and 7.0% depression, with the higher rates found among those with direct exposure (Wisnivesky et al., 2011). Besides risk factors that contribute to developing PTSD, underestimating its pathophysiological effects can exacerbate the condition. According to Boscarino and Adams (2009), even though 90% of adults have experienced at least a traumatic event in their life; only a small percentage develop PTSD. This further validates the concept of the influence of underlying risk factors post

One of the most common personal problems faced by first responders is PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a prolonged stress response caused by serious and sometimes dangerous emotional events that interfere with daily functioning. Those who suffer from TPSD tend to avoid socializing, have flashbacks of the event, and are emotionally tense (“The Link Between PTSD…”, 2017). Considering the definition and what first responders do, it is understandable that they develop this problem. It is also not confounding to know that they face a 95% increase in their risk of developing it when a fellow employee dies, by being the victim of some form of abuse, or after dealing with psychiatric patients (Khashaba et al., 2014). It is rather common that first responders will become the victim of some type of abuse, either due to premeditated aggression from people who are biased against uniformed workers or by patients who have conditions that make them involuntarily hostile, such as postictal patients who are recovering from a seizure. While both are very stressful events, a study

The experience leading to posttraumatic stress doesn’t have to last hours on end. In fact, the entire confrontation could last but a short thirty seconds. For many first responders in life-threatening situations, these few seconds can adversely affect the rest of their life (Willis, 2014). From that day or night on, the one affected will be plagued by sleepless nights, nightmares during the minimal hours of rest, and periodic anxiety attacks (Willis, 2014). In just thirty seconds, a well-trained first responder can go from being emotionally stable with a happy heart and life to having an unstable family, marriage, and have an inability to effectively perform many of his or her job duties. In just thirty seconds, one can develop a case of (undiagnosed) posttraumatic stress disorder (Willis, 2014).

PTSD’ is a mental illness, found most commonly effecting the mental state of individuals that have been exposed to confronting and/or traumatic events. Paramedics are people who in their everyday lives deal with low and high key events that can take a huge toll on their mental state ability. They are constantly sighting poor health and health conditions, trauma to another human, and the tragedy of death. (1)Despite being identified as a “high risk” occupational group, there is a lack of data concerning the prevalence of emotional problems among emergency ambulance personnel. The lack of data to support the PTSD levels of Paramedics is concerning especially when their work requires high level of concentration to perform precise procedures that

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Situations such as these allow for emotional attachments to creep into workers’ minds and begin to take their focus off of the task at hand. In addition to the minor emotional impacts involved with these types of trauma comes a much larger problem. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects approximately 5.2 million people over the course of a year. A mental health condition, this disorder is brought on by witnessing a traumatic event. Flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event are the major symptoms of the condition. PTSD is just one of the various emotional struggles that affects first responders. With this, and other effects, being a major safety issue for the responders as well

I agree the first responder has to be offered the ability to overcome their experience with a traumatic event. Providing early intervention is ideal in helping responder deal with the traumatic event, these intervention includes critical incident stress debriefing (CISD) and critical incident stress management (CISM), offering first responders alternative to dealing with their stress will led to a reduction in mental breakdowns. The programs that are now available to first responders has to be made mandatory across the board, doing this takes the option out of the hand of the responder and puts it in the hands of the department to enforce mandatory debriefing once exposed to any traumatic event.

Receiving blunt trauma to the head is a very a dangerous situation and can often lead to critical conditions and death. This essay will be taking an in depth look at a patient who has received trauma and their possible outcome. Utilizing knowledge of mechanisms and patterns of injury, vital signs and patient presentation, a diagnosis of the patient’s condition will be made. Once diagnosed, the pathophysiology of the condition will be explained and also possible injuries from this condition will be explored.

Trauma is a risk factor in the development of both posttraumatic stress disorder and psychosis. Trauma exposure is commonly reported in individuals that had psychotic disorder, and it may be one factor that plays a key role in child abused. However, exposure to childhood abuse is the risk factor for developing psychotic disorder. There are studies that shown the relationship between PTSD and psychotic disorder and how if affect many people.

Traumatic injury is a major contributor to total global burden of disease, and has a serious impact on health and quality of life. Each year in the US, approximately 2.5 million individuals incur injuries so severe that they require acute care hospital admissions (Bonnie et al., 1999). Richmond et al. (2002) found that 90% of a sample of seriously injured older adults survived, which indicates that outcomes beyond survival—such as acute stress reactions and the potential to develop PTSD must be evaluated and addressed for this patient population in the clinical setting. Adults who sustain serious injuries may experience acute stress reactions immediately following the event, and during and after inpatient hospitalization, and

Trauma, by definition is unbearable an intolerable. Trauma leaves traces on our minds and emotions, on our capacity for joy and intimacy, and even on our biology and immune systems (Kolk, 2014). While traumatic events are experienced as disastrous and overwhelming, there are opportunities for transformation, healing, and clarity of mind. The paper will focus on the treatment of Individuals suffering with mental illness due to post trauma using trauma-focused cognitive behavioral