Learnings from the Emergency Ward and Other Clinical Experience: Treating Individuals Dealing with Life’s Tragedies with John Briere

Led by John Briere, PhD

This is a 1 hour On Demand Webinar. Access information, resources and CEU information will be available shortly after registration and registrants will be given unlimited access to the recording for a full year.

This webinar was broadcasted live on October 21, 2022 as part of the Collective Trauma Conference

It can be easy to overlook social maltreatment when working in mental health environments. The immediacy of the work often requires us to focus on the acute psychological effects of adversity and loss. The result is less attention paid to social factors that underlie, contribute to, or exacerbate these challenges.

This makes perfect sense. In all areas of acute intervention, the goal is— borrowing from our medical colleagues—to “stop the bleeding;” to attend to the immediate difficulties and sometimes life-threatening circumstances that we have trained to address. But, at the same time, a cursory glance at public mental health clinic and emergency room waiting rooms reveals an unavoidable fact. Most of the people looking back at us are of color, economically insecure, and in some cases, immigrants. Many of them are people who live in a world far different from our own.

There are many reasons for this:

• The socially marginalized tend to get the short end of the stick when it comes to mental health services. Often, the best care seems to be reserved for those with the most money. And those of lesser social status are relegated to our more chaotic and challenging public mental health system.
• Many survivors of historical trauma (think Aboriginal boarding schools, Japanese internment camps, multigenerational enslavement, and crushing poverty) continue to experience social maltreatment in the current generation.
• Institutionalized maltreatment—whether racism, sexism, antisemitism, or discrimination against those identifying as LGBQT+—constitutes direct and ongoing sources of trauma.

In this presentation, we will explore some of the social/structural contributors to psychological suffering. This will involve:

• increasing our sensitivity to the effects of chronic social adversity;
• considering the possibility of a more accurate “diagnosis” of the client’s mutually reciprocating social and clinical stressors; and
• applying interventions that take social marginalization into account.

This training offers 1 hours of direct contact (not counting breaks or lunch). It is the participant’s responsibility to check with their individual state boards/regulatory body to verify CE requirements for their license to practice.

For Attendees of On Demand/Recorded Version

If you cannot verify 100% attendance of the Live Broadcast or if you are watching the On Demand/recorded version of this webinar, you will need to complete a Post-Webinar Quiz with a pass of at least 80% in order to verify your attendance. 

For Canadian and International participants

Upon fulfillment of the above requirements, Canadian and international participants will be issued a Certificate of Participation which features:

• Name of Participant
• Title of Training
• Name of Presenter plus their credentials
• Number of hours of training
• Date of training
• Confirmation that you have passed a quiz with at least 80% grade to verify your attendance

Please check carefully with your regulating body/organization that this certificate is sufficient proof for you to claim CEUs.

For general information about Continuing Education for Canadians and International participants, please click here.  

This training is aimed at all mental health professionals including:

• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Clinical and Counselling Psychologists
• Psychiatric Social Workers
• Pastoral Counsellors
• Psychotherapists
• Psychiatrists
• Physicians
• Nurse Practitioners
• Occupational Therapists
• Counsellors
• Graduate Students in Accredited Programs in the Above Fields
• case managers
• licensed professional counsellors
• all other professionals who would like to develop, update or expand their skills and knowledge in mental health practices

What level of knowledge the attendee should have in this topic?
– Intermediate/Advanced