Blog posts with the tag "Staff Perspective"

Staff Perspective: Let’s Talk About Insufficient Sleep - An Interview with Neuroscientist Dr. Tracy Jill Doty

Diana Dolan, Ph.D., CBSM

Insomnia among Service members receives a lot of well-deserved attention, as evidenced by the need for the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) workshops CDP provides. That said, insufficient sleep or sleep deprivation is arguably more common. Data shows while approximately 20% of soldiers score above the cutoff score on an insomnia screener (Taylor et al, 2016), 69-72% of Service members obtain six hours or less sleep nightly (Mysliwiec et al, 2013; Luxton et al, 2011). In other words, only a little over a quarter of Service members get into the recommended range of 7-8 hours of sleep nightly. Personally, I would go so far as to say that even seven hours of sleep is insufficient for the majority of people based on my evaluation of sleep research.

Staff Perspective: Sleep Disturbances and Suicide Risk

Relatively recent research has established sleep problems as an important predictor of elevated suicide risk. Specific aspects of sleep problems that are associated with greater suicide risk are not clear, but insomnia severity, insomnia duration, nightmare severity, and nightmare duration are possibilities. Since there are multiple dimensions of sleep that may play a role in suicide risk, more attention is needed to understand the mechanisms by which sleep influences one’s risk for suicide.

Staff Perspective: Learn More About (FREE) Prolonged Exposure Therapy Training

Jenna Ermold, Ph.D.

CDP, together with National Center for PTSD, recently completed the first of three training events in Prolonged Exposure (PE) with community providers who treat Veterans with PTSD as part of a pilot project funded by the National Center for PTSD. We interviewed Dr. Sonya Norman, director of the VA’s PTSD Consultation Program and Mr. Todd McKee, program manager, who are leading this project.

Staff Perspective: Listening to the Stories of Service Members and Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury

After exploring the effects on the immediate family, I’d like to refocus on the injured Service member/Veteran and highlight some important resources for better understanding the experiences of TBI through the words of the survivors themselves. The following links highlight several examples of interviews and documentaries with Service members and Veterans who experienced TBI during their military careers.

Staff Perspective: Military Spouses and Traumatic Brain Injury – Exploring the Stories of Affected Partners and Resources for Caregivers

In continued recognition of Brain Injury Awareness Month, this is the second in a series of blog posts examining the stories of military families affected by traumatic brain injury (TBI). This week I will focus on the experience of the injured individual’s spouse by reviewing related research, first-person accounts, and resources available to support partners as they learn to navigate the often-unfamiliar role of caregiver.

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