Rates of exposure to physical and sexual abuse trauma and the prevalence of PTSD symptoms among people with severe mental illness are very high, but services and clinical approaches that address the complications that abuse histories add to the lives of people using public mental health services are just emerging. Their efficacy will need to be evaluated. While there are instruments that may be adapted to measure changes in symptoms associated with trauma histories, there is no consumer/survivor generated conceptual framework for healing from trauma; nor are there any consumer/survivor based measures of healing from trauma.
Mental health measures generally focus on symptoms and outcomes rather than on the process of recovery, and it is rare that they directly reflect the perspective and experience of consumer/survivors. This presentation will describe the important dimensions of recovery from physical and sexual abuse trauma from the perspective of trauma survivors, based on collaboration among trauma survivors, clinicians and researchers. The ideas generated by trauma survivors have been developed into a measure of recovery from physical and sexual abuse trauma
Learning Objectives: : Participants will be able to: 1) understand the importance of trauma survivors' perspective about recovery from physical and sexual abuse trauma; 2) understand how to develop a collaborative research project that includes trauma survivors, clinicians and researchers and 3) apply the dimensions of healing measure to evaluate interventions for physical and sexual abuse survivors who also have severe mental illness diagnoses.
Keywords: Recovery, Sever Mental Illness
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
Disclosure not received
Relationship: Not Received.