A Scoping Review of Vicarious Trauma Interventions for Service Providers Working With People Who Have Experienced Traumatic Events.

Health and human service providers who aid traumatized individuals frequently experience vicarious trauma (VT). Although VT plays a critical role in service providers' mental health and well-being, as well as in the quality of their service provision, little information is available concerning the development and implementation of VT interventions for service providers. To advance the development of evidence in this area, we undertook a scoping review in which we reviewed existing interventions intended to address VT among service providers working with traumatized clients. Searches of electronic databases were conducted to identify studies published in peer-reviewed journals, with no date restrictions. Over 1,315 citations were reviewed, and a total of 27 studies were included in the final review. The findings show that VT interventions in the literature can be divided broadly into four categories: psychoeducation, mindfulness intervention, art and recreational programs, and alternative medicine therapy. The VT interventions reviewed generally showed promise in their key outcomes, including reductions in secondary trauma stress, compassion fatigue, burnout, and other mental health outcomes. However, the current body of research is lacking both in rigor and in specificity regarding the definition of VT. Furthermore, existing VT interventions are generally self-care based and tend to focus on general stress management rather than addressing the specific effects of VT. Therefore, we call for an increase in efforts to tailor VT interventions to different service settings and participant characteristics, as well as greater attention to developing primary VT interventions at the organizational level.

Fatalities related to intimate partner violence: towards a comprehensive perspective.

BACKGROUND: In 2015, 1350 people in the US were killed by their current or former intimate partner. Intimate partner violence (IPV) can also fatally injure family members or friends, and IPV may be a risk factor for suicide. Without accounting for all these outcomes, policymakers, funders, researchers and public health practitioners may underestimate the role that IPV plays in violent death. OBJECTIVE: We sought to enumerate the total contribution of IPV to violent death. Currently, no data holistically report on this problem. METHODS: We used Violent Death Reporting System (VDRS) data to identify all IPV-related violent deaths in North Carolina, 2010-2017. These included intimate partner homicides, corollary deaths, homicide-suicides, single suicides and legal intervention deaths. We used the existing IPV variable in VDRS, linked deaths from the same incident and manually reviewed 2440 suicide narratives where intimate partner problems or stalking were a factor in the death. RESULTS: IPV contributes to more than 1 in 10 violent deaths (10.3%). This represents an age-adjusted rate of 1.97 per 100 000 persons. Of the IPV-related violent deaths we identified, 39.3% were victims of intimate partner homicide, 17.4% corollary victims, 11.4% suicides in a homicide-suicide event, 29.8% suicides in a suicide-only event and 2.0% legal intervention deaths. IMPLICATIONS: If researchers only include intimate partner homicides, they may miss over 60% of IPV-related deaths. Our novel study shows the importance of taking a comprehensive approach to prevent IPV and decrease violent deaths. IPV is a risk factor for suicide as well as homicide.

Yoga for Trauma and Related Mental Health Problems: A Meta-Review With Clinical and Service Recommendations.

Health and human service providers have expressed growing interest in the benefits of yoga to help individuals cope with the effects of trauma, including anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Despite the growing popularity and strong appeal of yoga, providers must be mindful of the evidence regarding the efficacy of yoga in treating trauma effects as well as trauma-related mental health symptoms and illnesses. Therefore, our research team sought to answer two questions: (a) What is the evidence regarding yoga as a treatment for trauma effects, including anxiety, depression, and PTSD and (b) what are the clinical and service recommendations for using yoga with trauma-exposed individuals? Our initial scans identified a substantial body of research, including reviews. Rather than replicate earlier efforts, we undertook a systematic meta-review of 13 literature reviews, one of which included a meta-analysis. We determined the 13 reviews examined 185 distinct studies. Findings show that the evidence regarding yoga as an intervention for the effects of trauma as well as the mental health symptoms and illnesses often associated with trauma is encouraging but preliminary. Overall, the body of research is lacking in rigor as well as specificity regarding trauma. Review results also only allow for the recommendation of yoga as an ancillary treatment. Further, the reviews had considerable differences in their methods and limitations. Nonetheless, the results yielded findings concerning how clinicians and service providers can use yoga in their own practices, which is an important step for building an evidence base in this area.

Promoting successful collaborations between domestic violence and substance abuse treatment service sectors: a review of the literature.

Women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization are more likely to struggle with substance abuse problems than are women who do not experience IPV. Given the connection between IPV victimization and substance abuse, recommended practices urge collaboration between domestic violence service agencies and substance abuse treatment agencies to provide comprehensive services for women with these co-occurring problems. However, domestic violence and substance abuse services have unique histories of development that have led to distinct ways of service delivery. To promote successful collaborations, service providers and researchers are developing strategies to foster relationships across the two service sectors. The authors conducted a review of this emerging body of knowledge with the aim of assembling recommendations for strategies to foster collaboration between domestic violence and substance abuse services. The authors identified 15 documents for review inclusion and our analysis established 5 categories of documents. Findings yield key collaboration strategies and recommended service models. In addition, the review determined the existence of considerable challenges to promoting collaborative relationships between domestic violence and substance abuse treatment service sectors.

Latent profiles among sexual assault survivors: implications for defensive coping and resistance.

Rape resistance trainings need to prepare women to recognize and resist sexual assault across a range of experiences and contexts. To help address this need, this research used an investigation of 415 college women who completed a survey about their situational responding to an experience of acquaintance sexual assault. A previously established person-centered analysis model of four distinct risk and protective factor profiles was used to investigate the variability in women's responding. The profiling factors included women's prior victimization, alcohol consumption, relationship expectancies of the assailant, and assertive precautionary habits. Multivariate ANOVA was used to test for differences among the four profile groups on their cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responding. Results showed that the profile groups significantly differed in their assault responses. The findings highlight the utility of holistic, multivariate analyses for understanding women's sexual assault responses and help inform tailored resistance and empowerment trainings.