The global collaboration on traumatic stress

Abstract

Trauma is a global issue. The great majority of the global burden of disease arising from mental health conditions occurs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), among populations in political, economic, and/or cultural transition and those struck by forced migration. These mental health problems frequently arise as a result of traumatic events that adversely affect adults, children, and families, including war, mass violence, natural disasters, and accidents. In response to this, the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) launched the Global Initiative to have a stronger global impact on trauma-related issues. As part of this initiative, the Global Collaboration was established by representatives of eight professional organizations active in the field of traumatic stress. The group decided to focus on childhood abuse and neglect as its first collaboration. They collected guidelines worldwide, providing the basis for a synthesized core guide for prevention and treatment that can be customized for specific cultural contexts. The resulting ‘Internet information on Childhood Abuse and Neglect’ (iCAN) is a comprehensive guide for adults who have been affected by childhood abuse and neglect, as well as for the survivors’ significant others. It is currently provided in eight languages, and is freely available at the homepage of ISTSS and other websites. A second achievement of the Global Collaboration is the validation of the Computerized Childhood Attachment and Relational Trauma Screen (CARTS), a self-report measure designed to measure occurrences of childhood maltreatment, and its translation into multiple languages, including Croatian, Dutch, French, Georgian, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Russian, and Spanish. A study is currently planned to collect normative responses to the questionnaire, and to conduct cross-cultural comparisons. The Global Collaboration’s success may be seen as an encouraging step towards a truly global structure in the field of traumatic stress.

Child maltreatment across the lifespan

“…www.estss.org/german-abstract/). As Schnyder et al (2017) note, the collaboration can be seen as encouraging steps towards a more global structure in the field of traumatic stress. As trauma is a global issue (Hall & Olff, 2016; Kessler et al, 2017; Magruder, McLaughlin, & Borbon, 2017), global collaboration on important topics seems an efficient way to move the field forward.…”

“…The paper by Schnyder et al (2017) describes the establishment of a global collaboration of all major societies on traumatic stress studies, such as the ESTSS, the Argentina Society for Psychotrauma, the Asian Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, the Australasian Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, the Canadian Psychological Association Traumatic Stress Section, the German-speaking Society for Psychotraumatology, the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS), and the Japanese Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. The initiative was launched by the ISTSS.…”

“…The initiative was launched by the ISTSS. Schnyder et al (2017) highlight two results of the collaboration so far: internet information on Childhood Abuse and Neglect (iCAN) and the computerized Childhood Attachment and Relational Trauma Screen (CARTS). The iCAN provides information for adult individuals affected by childhood abuse and neglect, whereas the CARTS is a self-report measure designed to measure occurrences of childhood maltreatment (Frewen et al, 2013, 2015).…”

Facts on psychotraumatology

“…Child abuse is prevalent with long-term consequences (e.g. Clemens et al, 2018;Schnyder et al, 2017). Severe earthquakes impact mental and physical health (e.g.…”

Children and natural disasters

“…We may increase our knowledge by mutual learning and collaboration around the world (Schnyder et al, 2017) and by acknowledging cultural sensitivity (Schnyder et al, 2016). Disasters will usually not result in most children developing mental health difficulties in need of clinical intervention.…”