DTIRC Activities

DTIRC investigators engage in research, clinical services and dissemination activities on several interrelated fronts. These include:

  1. targeting post-traumatic events ranging from individual stressors to mass casualties
  2. implementing interventions ranging from prevention, to acute care to tertiary treatment
  3. designing treatments and interventions both for individuals and for communities

Targeting under-served populations
Under-served populations for trauma-related services include youth, patients in primary care and internal medicine, cultural minorities, those with co-occurring psychiatric disabilities and those living in rural and other areas lacking services. Although these are high-risk populations for trauma exposure, they generally do not receive scientifically validated interventions, often leading to other negative behavioral, substance abuse and physical health outcomes. Our goal is to increase the availability and effectiveness of evidence-based mental health care for currently un-served or under-served trauma survivors.

Early phase initiatives
In addition to the three primary areas of work listed above, several other initiatives/studies are in early phases of development and include:

Selected Current Projects
The Dartmouth Trauma Research Center is currently engaged in initiatives to link with the public mental health systems in northern New England and New York to enhance their capacity to effectively adapt and deliver evidence-based interventions in the following domains: prevention (identification of populations at risk; fostering resilience; participation in CMHS and FEMA evaluation of disaster mental health response ), acute interventions (psychological first aid, brief CBT intervention for Project Liberty), tertiary treatment (mental health service system enhancement, translating evidence-based treatments for specific underserved populations such as adolescents with PTSD).