Training the next generation of psychotraumatologists: COllaborative Network for Training and EXcellence in psychoTraumatology (CONTEXT)

Navigating the who, where, what, when, how and why of trauma exposure and response

Individual differences in the response to trauma are influenced by numerous contextual factors such as one's cultural background, the environment in which trauma occurs, the meanings attached to traumatic experiences, and various other social and cultural determinants both before and after traumatic exposure. This special issue of the European Journal of Psychotraumatology presents a series of papers conducted as part of the Collaborative Network for Training and Excellence in Psychotraumatology (CONTEXT); a programme of research which seeks to advance our understanding of the impact of trauma within diverse populations who are highly trauma exposed. Applying a context-specific focus, CONTEXT prioritised working closely with service users and those organisations delivering critical support in the wake of trauma exposure. The seven papers presented in this special issue are divided into those who are exposed to trauma either: (i) directly (survivors of childhood adversity in the USA; LGB youth in Northern Ireland; refugees and asylum seekers in the EU; and members of the general population exposed to conflict in Israel) or (ii) vicariously (fire fighters in the UK, humanitarian aid volunteers in Sudan, and child protection workers in Denmark). Together, findings from these studies demonstrate that social support, in its many different forms, is a universally important factor in the response to trauma. We discuss how traumatic stress can be compounded when, and can thrive within, contexts where necessary social support is absent or inadequate. We also emphasize the importance of recognizing the context specificity of trauma exposure and trauma response, as well as the need for collaboration between psychotrauma researchers and organisations who deliver support to traumatized populations to ensure rapid and effective translation of research findings into practice.

A decennial review of psychotraumatology: what did we learn and where are we going?

On 6 December 2019 we start the 10th year of the European Journal of Psychotraumatogy (EJPT), a full Open Access journal on psychotrauma. This editorial is part of a special issue/collection celebrating the 10 years anniversary of the journal where we will acknowledge some of our most impactful articles of the past decade (also discussed below and marked with * in the reference list). In this editorial the editors present a decennial review of the field addressing a range of topics that are core to both the journal and to psychotraumatology as a discipline. These include neurobiological developments (genomics, neuroimaging and neuroendocrine research), forms of trauma exposure and impact across the lifespan, mass trauma and early interventions, work-related trauma, trauma in refugee populations, and the potential consequences of trauma such as PTSD or Complex PTSD, but also resilience. We address innovations in psychological, medication (enhanced) and technology-assisted treatments, mediators and moderators like social support and finally how new research methods help us to gain insights in symptom structures or to better predict symptom development or treatment success. We aimed to answer three questions 1. Where did we stand in 2010? 2. What did we learn in the past 10 years? 3. What are our knowledge gaps? We conclude with a number of recommendations concerning top priorities for the future direction of the field of psychotraumatology and correspondingly the journal.

Caring for the mental health of humanitarian volunteers in traumatic contexts: the importance of organisational support

Background: Humanitarian workers operate in traumatic contexts, putting them at an increased risk of adverse mental health outcomes. The quality of the support they receive from their organization, their supervisor, and team members are proposed as determinants of mental illness and well-being, via the stress-appraisal process. Objective: Grounded in organizational support theory, we sought to understand the relationship between organizational factors, including perceived organizational support, supervisor support, and team support, and indicators of both adverse mental health and mental well-being among humanitarian volunteers. This relationship is hypothesized to be mediated by the perceived psychological stress. Methods: A sample of 409 humanitarian volunteers from the Sudanese Red Crescent Society completed an online, anonymous, survey comprised of the Perceived Supervision, Perceived Organizational Support, Team Support, and Perceived Psychological Stress scales, as well as the Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Patient Health Questionnaire scales, (GAD-7 and PHQ- 8), and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale. Study objectives were tested using structural equation modelling (SEM) procedures. Results: Perceived helplessness (PH) and perceived self-efficacy (PSE), as measures of psychological stress, were both found to fully mediate the relationship between perceived organizational support and mental health outcomes. Perceived organizational support was associated with PSE and inversely with PH. PH was associated with adverse mental health and inversely related to mental well-being. PSE was only associated with mental well-being. Perceived supervision was negatively associated with PSE. Conclusions: Perceived organizational support is a key determinant of the mental health of humanitarian volunteers, with greater perceived support associated with lower distress symptomology and greater mental well-being. Humanitarian agencies should take actions to improve their internal organization support systems to mitigate the stress associated with working in traumatic contexts. Specifically, more attention should be paid to the organizational support of the volunteers as front-line workers in humanitarian settings.

Child maltreatment across the lifespan

The present editorial introduces selected research for a special issue covering the 15th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ESTSS) 2017, 'Child Maltreatment across the Lifespan'. Unfortunately, childhood maltreatment is highly prevalent around the world. Exposure to child maltreatment is associated with a considerable risk of developing a wide range of psychopathologies. Thus, preventing child maltreatment and offering early treatment to victims is an important and promising area in reducing the risk of psychopathology. The 10 articles included in the special issue focus on different important areas related to the topic of child maltreatment. These include a biological and systemic understanding of maltreatment, a globalization perspective, and contributions on diagnosis and treatment, with implications for clinical practice. Furthermore, the special issue includes an update on ICD-11 and implications associated with the implementation of ICD-11. Future research recommendations are provided to underline the enduring need to promote and undertake research into all aspects of child maltreatment.