Traumatic Stress Center

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Center for Traumatic Stress Is Joint Effort for Kent State and Summa Health System

Exposure to traumatic stress can cause serious psychological problems, a fact highlighted by the tragic events of Sept. 11. But often less dramatic events, such as confrontation with the threat of death due to disease, serious motor vehicle accidents and criminal victimization, can have devastating immediate and long-term psychological and physical consequences. In many cases, many Vietnam-era veterans or women who were raped decades earlier can carry the impact of trauma with them in ways that invade and even overwhelm their lives and well-being.

To treat people who have been exposed to traumatic stress and to study trauma’s impact, Kent State University and Summa Health System of Akron have teamed in a unique way to form the Center for the Treatment and Study of Traumatic Stress. It is located at Summa’s St. Thomas Hospital in the Department of Psychiatry and is the only major treatment, education and research center dedicated to traumatic stress in the region.

Summa Health System, the Summa Health System Foundation and Kent State University have provided funds for the center, and it has been awarded a Research Challenge Grant of $115,000 from the Ohio Board of Regents.

Stevan E. Hobfoll, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Kent State, is the center’s director, working closely with Joseph Varley, M.D., chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Summa. Douglas Delahanty, Ph.D., a Kent State assistant professor of psychology, has joined the center to coordinate research on the neurological and immunological impact of trauma.

“Traumatic stress is rare for any given individual at a given time, but frequent on a community level and in every individual’s lifetime experience,” Hobfoll said. “Some professions, such as police officers and firefighters, may encounter traumatic stress regularly,” he added. Hobfoll has worked with war veterans affected by traumatic stress in the United States and the Middle East, as well as disaster victims and women who have been sexually abused or raped. He is also director of the Applied Psychology Center at Kent State.

The center will treat patients who are faced with traumatic stress and will conduct research on the consequences of trauma exposure. It will be a major resource for the region and make its expertise available to community agencies and organizations, Hobfoll said. The center will also train physicians and psychologists in cutting edge treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a serious and common consequence of trauma exposure.

“The center provides a model for integration of clinical medicine, research and medical education, and also links Summa with community agencies and organizations that need support for the treatment of victims of traumatic stress,” said Varley. The Red Cross, battered women’s shelters, victims’ assistance organizations, police and fire departments are agencies that become involved in traumatic situations, he added.

“The mix of medical and doctoral psychology students and residents provides a unique training opportunity that aids both programs,” Varley said.

Hobfoll said the center’s work is expected to attract additional funding to the region for research that can be conducted by medical departments at Summa, through community agencies at Kent State and at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine (NEOUCOM) in Rootstown.

Treatment at the center will not only fund research, but also have an economic impact on the region, Hobfoll said, because traumatic stress can have a debilitating effect on health and functioning, which leads to increased medical costs and lost work productivity.

In a related study with Summa that will also have an effect on economic development, Hobfoll is also working to learn how to better fight the spread of AIDS among inner-city women. Researchers from Kent State and Summa have been awarded a $3,071,877 federal and the program of research, if successful, is likely to affect how AIDS is prevented in prevention programs throughout the United States and internationally. The research grant is the largest project-focused grant ever received by Kent State.

The focus of the program is to teach women to adopt safer sex behavior. About 1,200 women will directly benefit from the program in the Akron area.

Hobfoll is the principal investigator for the program, and Justin Lavin, M.D., maternal fetal medicine specialist with Summa Health System, is the co-principal investigator.

“The project encourages women’s empowerment over their bodies and teaches them how to make smart, healthy choices,” Hobfoll said. “A secondary focus is looking at the impact of a lifetime history of physical and sexual abuse, and how exposure to abuse affects women as adults. The participants learn the ABCs of AIDS prevention, communication and negotiation skills. We hope to help raise their self-esteem and encourage them in the belief that they have a right to do what they choose to do. It also gives them the interpersonal skills to carry out those choices,” he said.