Category: Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders and Disasters
Zachary Adams, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology
Indiana University
Carmel, Indiana
Kimberly Canter, Ph.D.
Nemours Children's Health
Wilmington, Delaware
Zachary Adams, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology
Indiana University
Carmel, Indiana
Tatiana Davidson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Medical University of South Carolina
charleston, South Carolina
Kristen Higgins, M.A.
Research Assistant
Medical University of South Carolina
Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina
Yulia Gavrilova, Ph.D.
Medical University of South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Traumatic injury accounts for nearly 40 million emergency department visits annually and is the leading cause of death for children, adolescents, and young adults (CDC, 2021). An estimated 20-40% of patients develop posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, or other behavioral health concerns following discharge from the hospital. Left untreated, these disorders can impede physical recovery and contribute to impairment across multiple functional domains. Despite these well-documented risks, few hospitals have robust mechanisms in place to monitor or support patients’ behavioral health recovery once patients return home. Mobile health technologies (e.g., SMS texting, mobile apps, telehealth) offer a scalable and sustainable strategy for facilitating delivery of ongoing patient education, assessment, and intervention, when indicated. Technology-facilitated services can overcome prominent barriers to care (e.g., stigma, workforce shortages, costs) while maintaining high quality standards in delivery of evidence-based behavioral health assessment and treatment services.
This symposium spotlights findings from four projects that leverage technology to improve the availability of behavioral health services for patients recovering from traumatic injury. These projects are outgrowths and extensions from the Trauma Resilience and Recovery Program (TRRP; Ruggiero et al., 2020), which is a technology-enhanced stepped model of care that provides early intervention and direct services to promote behavioral health recovery post-injury. Steps in the model typically include brief educational interventions, symptom monitoring, ongoing assessment, and provision or referral to treatment services. Research to date supports the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of this model in improving access to behavioral healthcare services for patients recovering from traumatic injuries.
The work presented here highlights the growth and success of the TRRP model, as well as ways in which the model has been replicated and extended for specific populations (e.g., adolescents, caregivers, burn patients). The first presentation outlines the development of TRRP and describes early findings from an NIH R01-funded hybrid 1 effectiveness-implementation trial to evaluate TRRP in pediatric trauma centers. The second presentation presents data from an NIH-funded pilot trial of a novel extension of TRRP designed to equip caregivers with the resources they need to support their children following pediatric traumatic injuries. The third presentation outlines the development and initial implementation of the Burn Behavioral Health program, a TRRP-inspired stepped-care model for burn patients. The fourth presentation describes extension of the TRRP model to address opioid and other substance use among adolescents and young adults through user-guided formative research and an open pilot trial in over 90 patients. These findings will then be discussed in the broader context of technology-facilitated approaches to meeting the behavioral health needs of patients with serious injury or illness.
Presenter: Zachary Adams, Ph.D. – Indiana University
Co-author: Brigid Marriott, Ph.D. – Indiana University School of Medicine
Co-author: Swathi Karra, M.S. – Indiana University School of Medicine
Co-author: Elizabeth Linhart-Musikant, BS – Indiana University School of Medicine
Presenter: Tatiana Davidson, Ph.D. – Medical University of South Carolina
Co-author: Kristen Higgins, M.A. – Medical University of South Carolina
Co-author: Olivia Bravoco, BS – Medical University of South Carolina
Co-author: Robert Gates, MD, FACS – Prisma Health Upstate
Co-author: David Mooney, MD, MPH – Boston Children's Hospital
Co-author: Robert Russell, MD, MPH – Children's of Alabama Hospital
Co-author: Kenneth Ruggiero, PhD – Medical University of South Carolina
Presenter: Kristen Higgins, M.A. – Medical University of South Carolina
Co-author: Gabriela Becerra, Under Grad – Medical University of South Carolina
Co-author: Caitlyn Hood, MA – University of Kentucky
Co-author: Olivia Bravoco, BS – Medical University of South Carolina
Co-author: Tatiana Davidson, Ph.D. – Medical University of South Carolina
Co-author: Kenneth Ruggiero, PhD – Medical University of South Carolina
Co-author: Leigh Ridings, PhD – Medical University of South Carolina
Presenter: Yulia Gavrilova, Ph.D. – Medical University of South Carolina
Co-author: Kenneth Ruggiero, PhD – Medical University of South Carolina
Co-author: Tatiana Davidson, Ph.D. – Medical University of South Carolina
Co-author: Aaron Lesher, M.D. – Medical University of South Carolina
Co-author: Steven Kahn, M.D. – Medical University of South Carolina