Recorded Mini Workshop #7 - Early Intervention for Distress Following Disaster: Skills for Life Adjustment and Resilience (SOLAR)

2023 MW7

Mini Workshop 7 - Early Intervention for Distress Following Disaster: Skills for Life Adjustment and Resilience (SOLAR)

Presenter(s)

Scott M. Pickett, Ph.D.

Associate Professor Center for Translational Behavioral Science,
Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine
Florida State University College of Medicine
Tallahassee, Florida

Meaghan O'Donnell, Ph.D.

Professor, Head of Research Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health
Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne Carlton
Victoria, Australia

Abstract:

Natural disasters affect millions of people worldwide every year and have significant mental health consequences, including anxiety, depression, substance use disorders, and stress disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (Norris, 2006; Acierno et al., 2007; Kessler et al., 2008). Individuals affected by disasters may also experience impairments in functioning and experience an increase in somatic symptom severity without meeting criteria for a psychiatric disorder (Pollack, Weiss, & Trung, 2016). Skills for Life Adjustment and Resilience (SOLAR) is an internationally developed psychosocial skills based, brief program that can be delivered by lay community members (i.e., called coaches) that targets the adjustment difficulties experienced by disaster and trauma survivors. The six modules of the SOLAR program, delivered in 5 brief sessions, include arousal/affect management, promotion of healthy lifestyle and sleep, worry/rumination management, emotional processing of trauma, promotion of healthy relationships, and values-based behavioral activation and engagement. In a pilot study involving 15 disaster survivors (i.e., brush fires), the SOLAR program was found to be safe, feasible and acceptable, with reductions in psychological distress (O’Donnell et al., 2018). In Tuvalu, a Pacific Small Island Developing State, the SOLAR program was delivered following disastrous flooding resulting from Tropical Cyclone Pam. The results demonstrated decreases in distress, functional impairment, and PTSD symptoms compared to a wait-list control (Gibson et al., 2021). Most recently, the SOLAR program was delivered in a group format among German trauma survivors with similar positive improvements in insomnia symptoms, social support, quality of life, distress, and functional impairment (Lotzin et al., 2021). In this workshop we will 1) provide an overview of the SOLAR program, including the content of the modules and associated activities, and 2) cover the coach training and supervision procedures. We will present information about the development and testing of SOLAR, and present new data from ongoing randomized controlled trials.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of the session, the learner will be able to:

• Describe the content of the 5 sessions in the SOLAR program.
• Identify the treatment targets of the six SOLAR program modules.
• Explain the key components for coach training and supervision.
• Discuss the initial feasibility and effectiveness of the SOLAR program.
• Long-term Goal: Be prepared to implement the SOLAR program in a community affected by a natural disaster with consultation and supervision with the presenters.
• Long-term Goal: Be able to provide training and supervision to community-based coaches to deliver the SOLAR program in a community affected by natural disasters.

Recommended Readings: 

1. O'Donnell, M.L., Lau, W., Fredrickson, J., Bryant, R. A., Bisson, J., Burke, S., Busuttil, W., Coghlan, A., Creamer, M., Gray, D., Greenberg, N., McDermott, B., McFarlane, A. C., Monson, C., Phelps, A., Ruzek, J. I., Schnurr, P. P., Ugsang, J., Watson, P., Whitton, S., Williams, R., Cowlishaw, S., & Forbes, D. (2020). An open label pilot study of a brief psychosocial intervention for disaster and trauma survivors. Frontiers in Psychiatry. doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00483.
2. Gibson, K., Little, J., Cowlishaw, S., Toromon, T., Forbes, D., O’Donnell, ML. (2021). Piloting a scalable, posttrauma, psychosocial intervention in Tuvalu: The Skills for Life Adjustment and Resilience (SOLAR) Program. European Journal of Psychotraumatology. 12 (1). https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2021.1948253.
3. Lotzin, A., Hinrichsen, I., Kenntemich, L., Freyberg, R.-C., Lau, W., & O'Donnell, M. (2021). The SOLAR group program to promote recovery after disaster and trauma - A randomized controlled feasibility trial among Germany trauma survivors. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy.

****************************************

All attendees will receive a certificate of completion when the course requirements are satisfied. Certificate of completion is included in the cost of the webinar

The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies incurs significant administrative cost related to your registration before a webinar.  Therefore, there are no refunds for live webinars. If you unable to attend a webinar, we will provide you with the recorded version after the live presentation (which is still eligible for CE credit). If you wish to cancel or request to transfer your webinar registration to another webinar please email your request to membership@abct.org. 

*************************

For more information, contact:

Rachel Lamb, ABCT Membership and Marketing Manager
212-647-1890 ext. 209
rlamb@abct.org

*************************