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Second National Symposium on

Combat Stress Injuries:

Addressing the Challenges, Explaining the Solutions,

and Managing the Injuries

Presented by

Florida State University Traumatology Institute

Tallahassee, Florida

February 16, 2007 ~ 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

Center for Professional Development

Tallahassee, Florida

 

Register now! The first 100 registrants receive a copy of the new book just released, COMBAT STRESS INJURY, as part of the registration packet. This is by special arrangement with and underwriting by the Taylor and Francis Group. Registration includes access to the Symposium, a box lunch and access to the Symposium Poster Session that focuses on combat stress injury research, theory, management, treatment, or related topics.
This year's focus is "Combat Stress Injuries: Addressing the Challenges, Explaining the Solutions, and Managing the Injuries."  Seventeen academic, government, and military leaders will collaborate on four reaction panels to a keynote address by a leader in the field.

As with last year, this year's National Symposium focuses on the growing problem of combat-related stress among returning troops who are more and more feeling the strain of such a long and bloody engagement. Now that the elections are over it is time to return

attention to the troops and their families.

AGENDA
Opening Session
Welcoming Remarks by C. Aaron McNeece, Ph.D., Dean and Walter W. Hudson Professor, College of Social Work, Florida State University

Part I:

The Challenges

Presentation by Dr. William Nash and reaction panel of military, VA, and an Iraq veterans and family members who will amplify and illustrate the challenge of managing so many combat stress injuries.

Part II:

A Model of Combat Stress Injury Management

Co-Presentation by Dr. Nash and Dr. Figley and reaction panel of the same diversity who will amplify and illustrate the Stress Injury Model
Lunch Break
Poster Session with Box Lunches (see below for Poster Session submission process)
Part III: Detection and Management of Stress Injuries in the Combat Zone: Role of the Military
Presentation by Dr. Zahava Solomon and a reaction panel with the same diversity but making sure that both trooper and family members' interests are represented.
Part IV: Virtual Reality PTSD Exposure Therapy: From Virtual Vietnam to Virtual Iraq
Co-Presentation by Skip Rizzo and Ken Graap and reaction panel of mental health practitioners and researchers experienced with assessing and managing combat-related stress injuries and reactions.

 

KEYNOTE PRESENTERS AND PANELISTS

Presenter
Brief Bio

Zahava Solomon, PhD, MSW

 Dr. Solomon is a Professor of Psychiatric Epistemology and Social Work at the Tel-Aviv University and the Head of the Adler Research Center for Child Welfare and Protection. Prof. Solomon served in the I.D.F as head of the Research Branch in the Medical Corps (1981-1992, Lt. Col). During the years 1994-1996 Professor Solomon served as Dean of the Bob Shapell School of Social Work at Tel-Aviv. She served as the Dean of the special programs at Tel Aviv University between 1997-2001, has published five books on psychic trauma related issues, over 200 articles and more than 50 chapters. Prof. Solomon has been awarded numerous Israeli and international awards and research grants, including the prestigious Laufer Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement in the field of PTSD. An autobiographical chapter she wrote appears in the book Mapping Trauma and Its Wake, a compilation of autobiographical essays by pioneer researchers in the field of trauma.

William P. Nash, MD, CAPT, MC, USN

Captain Nash is Coordinator of the Combat/Operational Stress Control Branch of Manpower & Reserve Affairs at Headquarters, Marine Corps, in Quantico, Virginia.  A veteran of 28 years of service, including a deployment with the 1st Marine Division to Iraq in 2004-2005, Captain Nash currently directs all Combat/Operational Stress Control policies and programs in the Marine Corps, and he oversees the Marine Corps' innovative Operational Stress Control and Readiness (OSCAR) program that embeds mental health professionals in multidisciplinary teams in Marine ground combat units.  He will present the first lecture, which provides an overview of the mental health challenges faced by the current cohort of combatants -- before, during, and after deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan.  He will co-present the second lecture with Dr. Figley.

Albert "Skip" Rizzo, Ph.D

 Dr. Rizzo is a psychologist, research-scientist and research associate professor and Director of the University of Southern California Virtual Environments Lab, Institute for Creative Technologies, Viterbi School of Engineering and the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology in Marina del Rey, California. In addition, he is the Associate Editor of the journal CyberPsychology and Behavior and Senior Editor of the MIT Press journal Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments. Dr. Rizzo holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the State University of New York at Binghamton. Skip along with Barbara O. Rothbaum, Ph.D. and Ken Graap, M.Ed. wrote the recently published chapter, Virtual reality applications for the treatment of combat-related PTSD. His presentation draws upon and expands his chapter. He and Ken Graap will also demonstrate their ground-breaking virtual reality equipment and software. His work and that of Ken Graap (below) were featured recently on National Public Radio. Read, listen, and watch.

 

Ken Graap

Ken Graap, co-founder and CEO of Virtually Better of Decatur, Georgia, which creates virtual environments with 3-D imaging software for use by psychologists, psychiatrists and researchers. Virtually Better produced a virtual reality program entitled Virtual Vietnam which treated Vietnam veterans with PTSD and is now being used as one of the source materials in building a new program code-named Virtual Iraq, which is funded by the Office of Naval Research. The development team is using a video game engine called Gamebryo and 3-D Studio Max and Maya graphics programs to create virtual structures. They have also adapted assets from virtual scenarios that were developed for the game “Full Spectrum Warrior.” This is a soldier training program based on Microsoft Xbox and is a combat simulator developed with personnel from the Army's Infantry School at Fort Benning, GA. The game places the player in an urban fighting environment. The Virtual Iraq program transforms those environments into combat areas in the Middle East. The New York Times Sam Lubell noted the power and utility of the technology Graap and Rizzo helped to develop.

Charles R. Figley, PhD

 Dr. Figley is a professor and director of the University's Traumatology Institute, which was approved by the Florida Board of Regents in 1999. Dr. Figley is credited with ushering in the modern era of traumatology to include psychology trauma with his 1978 book, Stress Disorders among Vietnam Veterans: Theory, Research, and Treatment (New York: Brunner/Mazel). The second lecture is co-presented by Dr. Nash who is also the co-editor for Dr. Figley's latest book. Nash and Figley present their combat stress injury model that represents the best hope of understanding the combat stress concept and predict who, what, and when Marines become injured due to this type of stress. In the final lecture, Dr. Figley discusses a national effort to help war veterans integrate into civilian life with the best hope of success: The Collegiate Veterans Association (CVA) Model. Plans are underway to enable at least one CVA chapter in every state in the union by the end of 2007. The lecture discusses the critical ingredients in making a campus vet club successful and the plan for creating them.

Panelists:

Nancy Clayton, MD

Charles R. Figley, Ph.D.

Tom Gaskin, Ph.D.

CDR Paul Hammer, MD

Alexandra Heber, MD

CAPT Bob Koffman, MD

Warren R. "Rocky" McPherson,

COL, USMC (Ret.)

Shad Meshad, LCSW

CPT William P. Nash, MD

Albert "Skip" Rizzo, Ph.D

Raymond Scurfield, DSW

Martell Teasley, Ph.D

Bruce Thyer, Ph.D

Zahava Solomon, Ph.D.

[others TBA}
Each lecture will be followed by a panel discuss that is longer in duration.  The panelists include leaders inside and outside the military/veteran services community, including several FSU professors. Those who have agreed to participate, in addition to the keynote speakers include: Martell Teasley, Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Bruce Thyer, Ph.D., Professor, Florida State University College of Social Work; Warren R. "Rocky" McPherson, Colonel, USMC (Ret.), Executive Director of the Florida Department of Veterans' Affairs; Shad Meshad, LCSW, President, National Veterans Foundation (Los Angeles); Alexandra Heber, M.D., FRCPC, consulting psychiatrist for the Canadian Forces Health Services Centre, Operational Trauma and Stress Support Centre, Ottawa, Ontario; Nancy Clayton, M.D., former Navy psychiatrist treating combat Marines now in private practice in Northern Virginia; Raymond Scurfield, DSW, Associate Professor and Director of the University of Southern Mississippi's Katrina Research Center; CAPT Bob Koffman, MC, USN, also a Navy psychiatrist, the new COSC Coordinator at the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, and a member of both the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research Ground Combat Study and the VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guidelines for Traumatic Stress working group; CDR Paul Hammer, MC, USN, another Navy psychiatrist who has been the director of all mental health services in the Al Anbar Province of Iraq for Multinational Forces, Iraq - West, for the past year (he will be returning from his 13 month deployment barely weeks before the Symposium); Tom Gaskin, Ph.D., Deputy Coordinator, Combat/Operational Stress Control Branch of Manpower & Reserve Affairs at Headquarters, Marine Corps, in Quantico, Virginia.

Lunch Hour Poster Session Program To be Announced January 20, 2007

Proposals for posters sessions are welcome until January 12, 2007. The Symposium Program Committee will use the following criteria in the selection process: (1) Consistent with the purpose and theme of the 2007 Symposium; (2) highly likely to be interesting to most attendees; (3) avoids politics; (4) overall appeal in the context of history and current events associated with combat stress injuries. Proposals (one page limit) should be sent to the Program Chair, Dr. Figley, as an attachment.

SYMPOSIUM PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Shad Meshad, LCSW

CAPT. William Nash, MD

Raymond Scurfield, DSW

Dan Rosenthal

Charles Figley, PhD, Chair