Professional Boundaries

The Family Justice Center Alliance is hosting a webinar on maintaining professional boundaries, October 1st from 9-10 am Pacific. The session is free, but preregistration is required.

Weekly Wrap-Up @ the Sustainability Blog

Well, people, this is my last week of being at home for the next month. I”ve had two uninterrupted weeks with the family, but this weekend, it’s back on the road for me. Assuming that the Navy base I’ll be on allows me internet access (and you just never know), there shouldn’t be any interruption in posts next week. In the meantime, check out what’s happening over at the sustainability site:

• a webinar from the Family Justice Center Alliance on setting up foundations and 501(c)3’s
• an interesting piece over at the Huffington Post on handling conflict
• and some unfortunate words many of us seem to live by (I’m talking to you, Val P)

I’m going to try and cut out a bit early today to enjoy this last day of summer break with my kiddo; there’s a wedding anniversary to celebrate tonight (you’ll have to ask Rob which number–I never get it right), and Sally’s birthday in Harrisburg this weekend. All in all, it’s shaping up to be a fantastic weekend. Hope yours will be, too. See you back here on Monday.

Disaster Mental Health

I have had what could be benignly called a very long travel day (involving groundstops, flying through thunderstorms, airport power outages, and the like). It’s far later than I planned to be posting for today (actually yesterday now), so this is a short and simple one for those of you interested in traumatic stress and emotional trauma: from David Baldwin’s Trauma Information Pages, his comprehensive listing of online disaster mental health resources. I don’t normally just highlight a page of links as the sole content for a post, but this one is so exhaustive, I figured it’s a great resource to add to the arsenal.

Weekend Extra: Workplace Violence

This weekend has been yet another sad reminder of the epidemic of workplace violence. It’s obviously not a new phenomenon, but right now it seems to be happening with frightening frequency. The US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) actually has a tool for hospitals (cleverly known as the Hospital eTool) that addresses a wide variety of hazards in the workplace, such as blood-borne pathogens and medical lasers(!). There’s also a section on workplace violence.

Blast Injuries & Mass Casualties

Since I loaded you with posts yesterday (and according to my stats page A LOT of you are working your way through the cervical images today–wow, people), a nice bite-sized podcast to have with your morning latte. The CDC, always a reliable source for content, has a podcast on Blast Injuries: What Clinicians Need to Know. It clocks in at under 3 minutes–barely enough time to set the speed and incline on your treadmill. However, if this brief audio isn’t enough to satisfy your need for info on the subject…

PTSD

The US Department of Veterans Affairs, National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, has a free PTSD101 program for healthcare professionals. The courses contained in the program (and there are many), are divided into 6 different categories and include topics such as vicarious traumatization, PTSD and sexual assault, combat stress injuries, and cultural dimensions of PTSD. The list is pretty extensive. Best of all? CEs available for everyone.

Compassion Fatigue Prevention

PESI is hosting a webinar on compassion fatigue prevention and resiliency, Friday, March 13th from 2-3:30pm ET. Cost is $59, but that fee allows an unlimited number of participants at any one site. Participants will receive 1.5 CEUs per site (additional CEs are $39 each). CEs also available for psychologists and social workers. You can see the outline for the presentation here.

Secondary Trauma

The Child Trauma Academy offers several free online courses on a variety of topics, including one that people frequently seem to be searching for: secondary (or vicarious) trauma. The Cost of Caring: Secondary Traumatic Stress and the Impact of Working with High-Risk Children and Families uses slides and narrative content, including case studies, broken into 4 lessons:

1. Introduction to secondary trauma
2. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders and secondary trauma
3. Self-care strategies for combating secondary trauma
4. Finding resources and getting involved

Each lesson includes as assignment or quiz: some of these might be excellent jumping off points for conversation at staff meetings or team retreats (just a thought).