Best practices

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Telehealth Online Forum
Tuesday, July 7th to Wednesday, September 30th

Please join us in an online, open forum on telehealth. NCB is providing an opportunity for clinicians to ask each other questions, share observations and adapted telehealth protocols for the SoT population via an online forum and technical exchange. This conversation will be a forum for peer-led informational exchange. NCB staff will assist in facilitating and monitoring the conversation.

Directions: Please watch Eugene Augusterfer’s presentation and interview Telemedicine in Mental Health first. Then feel free to join us in this open forum. All are welcome to join this forum, whether you have an account on Healtorture.org or not. For more information on using the forum, please read the directions on the first post. Please keep your comments respectful, relevant, factual, and do not share identifying information about clients per client privacy and HIPAA regulations. This forum will be open from July 6, 2020 through September 30, 2020.

Telemedicine in Mental Health

The National Capacity Building (NCB) Project at the Center for Victims of Torture is pleased to announce a two-part on-demand learning experience on using telehealth to provide mental health services for survivor of torture clients. This is an opportunity to learn about implementing telemental health from one of the foremost experts in the US on providing telemental health services and then connect with your colleagues to delve more deeply into the nuanced questions and dilemmas specific to delivery of services torture survivors via telemental health.  

  • Part One: Presentation and Interview by Eugene Augusterfer 
  • Part Two: Online Forum

Description

We start with a presentation by Eugene Augusterfer on the basics of providing mental health services through tele-health followed by an in-depth interview where Mr. Augusterfer answers questions on implementing telemental health in SOT programs. This presentation will help you understand what telemental health is; what technology is needed; what providers need to know to deliver telemental health effectively;  and includes protocols for both providers and clients that will help assure success.

The Science of Empathy, Empathic Reflection, and Empathic Regulation in Clinical Care

Scientific studies of the clinical impact of empathy have mushroomed over the past decade. The neurosciences have been linking the brain to social behaviors. For many, empathic listening to the trauma stories of torture survivors is seen as being at the heart of therapy. This webinar presents a brief overview of the history and science of empathy. The discovery of the biological basis of empathy "the mirror neurons” will be discussed.

Narrative Exposure Therapy for Torture Survivors in Exile: Overview and Adaptations

This session presents a brief theoretical and practical overview of Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET), which has emerged in recent years as a promising evidence-based treatment for PTSD in torture survivors. The presentation will assume familiarity and skill with exposure treatments and is designed for psychotherapists.  The overview covers the theoretical background for NET, basic components of the method, and references for some of the current research supporting NET.

Therapy for Refugees and Torture Survivors: New H.E.A.R.T. Model Part 2

In this second session of this two-part series, Richard Mollica will facilitate a conversation with Dr. Sebastian Ssempijja, Ph.D. CEO/Clinic Director, Sebastian Family Psychology Practice, LLC, and Laura Morrissette MA, LMHC, a therapist with the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma (HPRT) who will use case studies to share their insights on using the H.E.A.R.T. model in a clinical setting and how it might compare with using a trauma sensitive meditation instruction approach.

Now available with closed captioning.


Therapy for Refugees and Torture Survivors: New H.E.A.R.T. Model Part 1

In this first session of our  Measured Impact Webinar (MIW) mini-course, "Therapy for Refugees and Torture Survivors: New H.E.A.R.T. (Healing Environment and Restorative Therapy)" Dr. Richard Mollica of the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma  introduces the H.E.A.R.T. model of care in working with survivors of torture. Dr. Mollica  describes the H.E.A.R.T. model and how the concepts contained in it may provide a different way of thinking about therapy with survivors of torture.

"Collaboration, pilot program could expand the Center for Victims of Torture’s work in MN"

An article at the Minnesota House of Representatives’ Session Daily, “Collaboration, pilot program could expand the Center for Victims of Torture’s work in MN,” quotes CVT’s Peter Dross, director of external relations, and Alison Beckman, senior clinician for external relations, and describes

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Improving Well-Being for Refugees in Primary Care: A Toolkit for Providers

Healing Hearts Toolkit Cover Image.png

Improving Well Being for Refugees in Primary Care: A Toolkit for Providers
CVT’s NEW Toolkit for Providers Working with Refugees

Meet Paw, a refugee from Burma seeking medical care in the U.S. for her headaches, nightmares and physical pain. She’s unfamiliar with the U.S. primary care system and she doesn’t speak English. Waiting alone at her first doctor appointment, Paw wonders, “How will the doctor understand me? What if I don’t like my interpreter? Will I ever be healthy again?” Paw’s questions don’t end there. They’re only a few of several listed in in CVT’s new manual, “Improving Well Being for Refugees in Primary Care: A Toolkit for Providers.”  Paw is a fictional character whose real-life experiences mirror those of clients in CVT’s Healing Hearts program.

Boundaries in the Electronic Age

With the cell phone, tablets, home computers, and the internet social services and health care have undergone radical changes in the last two decades. This webinar will examine ethical and professional practice issues related to this evolution in methods of communication.  Use of internet searches on clients, communication via texting, the use of blogs and help sites, friending on social media sites, will be discussed along with things which may require the development of program policies and/or standards.

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Organizational Sustainability Part 2: A View From 3 Perspectives

Description:

Nonprofit organizations are being challenged as never before to make efficient use of the financial, community and human resources available to them to more effectively serve their clients and expand their community impact. In this measured impact mini-course we examine organizational sustainability through three essential factors:  financial stability, partnership development, and staff retention.

Organizational Sustainability: A View from 3 Perspectives

Description:

Nonprofit organizations are being challenged as never before to make efficient use of the financial, community and human resources available to them to more effectively serve their clients and expand their community impact. In this measured impact mini-course we examine organizational sustainability through three essential factors:  financial stability, partnership development, and staff retention.

Fielding Difficult Questions about Clients’ Human Rights

An article by the Center for Victims of Torture's Casie Iwata, MA, MSW, LGSW, on how to respond to the human rights concerns of survivors.

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Tactics for Local Action - Creating More Inclusive Communities

An article posted on the Center for Victims of Torture's blog on the use of tactics as inspiration for taking local action on issues of inclusivity.

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