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Listen protect connect for traumatized schoolchildren: a pilot study of psychological first aid

BACKGROUND: Listen Protect Connect (LPC), a school-based program of Psychological First Aid delivered by non-mental health professionals, is intended to support trauma-exposed children. Our objective was to implement LPC in a school setting and assess the effectiveness of LPC on improving psychosoci...

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Autores principales: Ramirez, Marizen, Harland, Karisa, Frederick, Maisha, Shepherd, Rhoda, Wong, Marleen, Cavanaugh, Joseph E
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4269971/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25566374
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2050-7283-1-26
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author Ramirez, Marizen
Harland, Karisa
Frederick, Maisha
Shepherd, Rhoda
Wong, Marleen
Cavanaugh, Joseph E
author_facet Ramirez, Marizen
Harland, Karisa
Frederick, Maisha
Shepherd, Rhoda
Wong, Marleen
Cavanaugh, Joseph E
author_sort Ramirez, Marizen
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Listen Protect Connect (LPC), a school-based program of Psychological First Aid delivered by non-mental health professionals, is intended to support trauma-exposed children. Our objective was to implement LPC in a school setting and assess the effectiveness of LPC on improving psychosocial outcomes associated with trauma. METHODS: A pilot quasi-experiment was conducted with middle school children self-identified or referred to the school nurse as potentially exposed to stressful life experiences. LPC was provided to students by the school nurse, and questionnaires were administered at baseline, 2-, 4- and 8-weeks to assess life stressors, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, social support, and school connectedness. A total of 71 measurements were collected from 20 children in all. Although a small sample size, multiple measurements allowed for multivariable mixed effects models to analyze changes in the repeated outcomes over time. RESULTS: Students who received the intervention had reduced depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms from baseline throughout follow-up period. Total social support also increased significantly from baseline through 8-weeks, and school connectedness increased up to 4-weeks post-intervention. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the potential of LPC as a school-based intervention of Psychological First Aid. Future randomized trials of LPC are needed, however.
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spelling pubmed-42699712015-01-06 Listen protect connect for traumatized schoolchildren: a pilot study of psychological first aid Ramirez, Marizen Harland, Karisa Frederick, Maisha Shepherd, Rhoda Wong, Marleen Cavanaugh, Joseph E BMC Psychol Research Article BACKGROUND: Listen Protect Connect (LPC), a school-based program of Psychological First Aid delivered by non-mental health professionals, is intended to support trauma-exposed children. Our objective was to implement LPC in a school setting and assess the effectiveness of LPC on improving psychosocial outcomes associated with trauma. METHODS: A pilot quasi-experiment was conducted with middle school children self-identified or referred to the school nurse as potentially exposed to stressful life experiences. LPC was provided to students by the school nurse, and questionnaires were administered at baseline, 2-, 4- and 8-weeks to assess life stressors, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, social support, and school connectedness. A total of 71 measurements were collected from 20 children in all. Although a small sample size, multiple measurements allowed for multivariable mixed effects models to analyze changes in the repeated outcomes over time. RESULTS: Students who received the intervention had reduced depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms from baseline throughout follow-up period. Total social support also increased significantly from baseline through 8-weeks, and school connectedness increased up to 4-weeks post-intervention. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the potential of LPC as a school-based intervention of Psychological First Aid. Future randomized trials of LPC are needed, however. BioMed Central 2013-11-27 /pmc/articles/PMC4269971/ /pubmed/25566374 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2050-7283-1-26 Text en © Ramirez et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013 This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Ramirez, Marizen
Harland, Karisa
Frederick, Maisha
Shepherd, Rhoda
Wong, Marleen
Cavanaugh, Joseph E
Listen protect connect for traumatized schoolchildren: a pilot study of psychological first aid
title Listen protect connect for traumatized schoolchildren: a pilot study of psychological first aid
title_full Listen protect connect for traumatized schoolchildren: a pilot study of psychological first aid
title_fullStr Listen protect connect for traumatized schoolchildren: a pilot study of psychological first aid
title_full_unstemmed Listen protect connect for traumatized schoolchildren: a pilot study of psychological first aid
title_short Listen protect connect for traumatized schoolchildren: a pilot study of psychological first aid
title_sort listen protect connect for traumatized schoolchildren: a pilot study of psychological first aid
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4269971/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25566374
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2050-7283-1-26
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