Reducing the psychological impact of traumatic material on psychiatrists, psychologists and lawyers

Seminar recording

Members can access a recording of this seminar through the Members' Section.
 

Supplementary materials

• Devilly G. J. & Annab R. 2008. A randomised controlled trial of group debriefing. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry. 39: 42-56.
• Devilly G. J., Varker T., Hansen K. & Gist R. 2007. An analogue study of the effects of psychological debriefing on eyewitness memory. Behavior Research and Therapy. 45: 1245-1254.
• Devilly G. J. & Varker T. 2008. The effect of stressor severity on outcome following group debriefing. Behaviour research and therapy. 46: 130-136.
• Robert N. P., Kitchiner N. J., Kenardy J., Robertson L., Lewis C. & Bisson J. I. 2019. Multiple session early psychological interventions for the prevention of post-traumatic stress disorder. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 8.
• McCart M. R., Chapman J. E., Zajac K. & Rheingold A. A. 2020. Community-based randomized controlled trial of psychological first aid with crime victims. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology. 88(8): 681-695.
• Devilly G. J. & Varker T. 2013. The prevention of trauma reactions in police officers: decreasing reliance on drugs and alcohol. Canberra: National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund.

Presentation abstract

Psychiatrists, Psychologists and Lawyers are having to be exposed to increasingly vivid traumatic materials. These include police body camera footage, indecent images of children, graphic photographs of trauma, and audio and video recordings of crime. This is in addition to the everyday demands to which psychiatrists, psychologists and lawyers are exposed.

In this presentation Professor Grant Devilly will outline practical steps that people can take to reduce the psychological impact. Specifically, he will cover the basics of good psychological health, responses to stress reactions, and preventing long lasting reactions to specific events.

Grant is a Professor at Griffith University. He has worked predominantly with neuroses at the Institute of Psychiatry (England), as a senior psychologist in psychiatric hospitals, and is a practicing clinician. He has been invited to present both nationally and internationally on the topics of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), alcohol use, violent and sexual offending, violent videogame use and is a recognised expert on psychological aspects of intervening with victims of crime. He has acted as an advisor to the Victorian Department of Justice and advised the Victorian Parliamentary Review into victim services and another enquiry into ‘Recovered Memory Therapy’. He was also an advisor to the Federal Attorney General to change legislation into the effects of violent videogames. He has been invited to present both nationally and internationally on the topic of PTSD, preventing PTSD and on psychological aspects of intervening with victims of crime, disaster and war.

He was on the scientific working party which developed the Australian Guidelines for the Treatment of Acute Stress Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and also the guidelines specifically aimed at emergency services personnel. In his capacity as a researcher and clinical psychologist he is frequently used as an expert witness in court cases involving PTSD in the workplace.