This webinar provides guidance to mental health and social work clinicians who are conducting private sessions with front-line healthcare workers who are caring for COVID-19 patients. General principles and practice guidance are presented that are not intend to prescribe specific practices but that provide a transtheoretical integration of Psychological First Aid and evidence-based approaches to psychotherapy that must be adapted to the acute response context and individualized for each unique encounter and the therapeutic approach of each practitioner.

Presented by:

Julian Ford, Ph.D., A.B.P.P.

Learning Objectives:

Attendees will be able to describe and apply three core principles to their therapeutic encounters with front-line staff in the current pandemic or related acute mass health crises:
1.Provide the worker with an authentic affirmation of the value of their dedication and service

2.Provide the worker with practical tools for self-regulation

3.Provide the worker with a sense of having learned some thing of value about themselves and how they can actively find meaning or achieve core goals in the current crisis

Bio:

Julian Ford is a board certified clinical psychologist and Professor of Psychiatry and Law at the University of Connecticut where he directs two Treatment and Services Adaptation Centers in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network: the Center for Trauma Recovery and Juvenile Justice and the Center for the Treatment of Developmental Trauma Disorders. Dr. Ford is the immediate past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. He has published more than 250 articles and book chapters and is the author or editor of 10 books, including Post
traumatic Stress Disorder, 2nd Edition, Treating Complex Trauma: A Sequenced, Relationship-Based Approach, 2nd Edition and Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders in Children and Adolescents: Scientific Foundations and Therapeutic Models.

References:

Adams, J. G., & Walls, R. M. (2020). Supporting the Health Care Workforce During the COVID-19 Global Epidemic. JAMA. doi: 10.1001/jama.2020.3972

Chen, Q., Liang, M., Li, Y., Guo, J., Fei, D., Wang, L., . . . Zhang, Z. (2020). Mental health care for medical staff in China during the COVID-19 outbreak. Lancet Psychiatry, 7(4), e15-e16. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30078-X

Greenberg, N., Docherty, M., Gnanapragasam, S., & Wessely, S. (2020). Managing mental health challenges faced by healthcare workers during covid-19 pandemic. BMJ, 368, m1211. doi: 10.1136/bmj.m1211

Holmes, E. A., O'Connor, R. C., Perry, V. H., Tracey, I., Wessely, S., Arseneault, L., . . . Bullmore, E. (2020). Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemic: a call for action for mental health science. Lancet Psychiatry. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30168-1

Kang, L., Li, Y., Hu, S., Chen, M., Yang, C., Yang, B. X., . . . Liu, Z. (2020). The mental health of medical workers in Wuhan, China dealing with the 2019 novel coronavirus. Lancet Psychiatry, 7(3), e14. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30047-X

Lai, J., Ma, S., Wang, Y., Cai, Z., Hu, J., Wei, N., . . . Hu, S. (2020). Factors Associated With Mental Health Outcomes Among Health Care Workers Exposed to Coronavirus Disease 2019. JAMA Network Open, 3(3), e203976. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.3976

Pfefferbaum, B., & North, C. S. (2020). Mental Health and the Covid-19 Pandemic. New England Journal of Medicine. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp2008017