Basic Concepts and Principles in the Care of Torture Survivors with Traumatic Head Injury (THI)

This webinar series, presented in 2010, features Richard Mollica. It is a three part series about traumatic head injury in torture survivors.

This webinar is part of the National Capacity Building (NCB) webinar series. NCB is a project of the Center for Victims of Torture.

In the 1950’s Dr. Ettinger and later in the 1980s Goldfeld and Mollica identified Traumatic Head Injury (THI)/leading to Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) as a common and severe sequelae of trauma and other forms of external violence. THI/TBI is now likely recognized as the signature injury in American combat troops returning from the wars in the Middle East. Yet THI/TBI related to medical and psychiatric problems are difficult to diagnose and treat even in specialized clinics for survivors of torture and combat veterans.

• History and Evidence of Traumatic Head Injury (Part 1) The first part of this series is intended to help mental healthcare providers have a better understanding of how to identify and care for torture survivors who have experienced Traumatic Head Injury (THI) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Dr. Richard Mollica lays an historical and contextual background for the identification and treatment of THI and TBI in torture survivors, and he discusses the major ways in which these two forms of trauma are overlooked in modern healthcare and torture treatment services. He further explains how THI and TBI share many similarities, and can have causal relationships to, other neurocognitive deficits such as PTSD, depression, and other problems. With the use of neuroimaging visual aids, Dr. Mollica shows the direct effects of common forms of torture to the head and explains their relationship to the development of TBI. Dr. Mollica also applies the findings from case studies of concentration camp victims, Vietnamese torture survivors, and Iraqi soldiers.
• Screening for Traumatic Head Injury in a Basic Clinic Setting (Part 2). This webinar elaborates on part 1 of the series in that it aids mental healthcare providers more specifically in screening for Traumatic Head Injury ( THI) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in a clinic setting. This webinar is broken down into three main areas: definitions and characteristics of THI and TBI, how to identify and screen for TBI/Mild TBI, and therapy principles and referral options. Richard Sanders expands on these areas by discussing how to treat patients who suffer from chronic post-concussion symptoms, the prevalence of TBI and who commonly suffers from it, types of force that affect the brain and how each manifests itself patient symptoms and behavior, the development of other neurological problems, and later consequences of TBI. He also includes successful ways to educate patients on their diagnoses and includes many other resources, at the national and local levels, that can be of use to practitioners. Sanders also uses many visual aids to better explain the information.
• Family and Patient Support: New Approaches to Fostering Dialogue and Hope. This webinar helps you determine when THI/TBI affected torture survivors need referral to mainstream specialized rehabilitation centers. Then the presenter helps you learn about patient and family lived experience with TBI/THI, with the goal of fostering dialogue and hope and promoting patient- and family-centered care. The presenter then discusses how to connect with patient and family supports in the community and learn what patient and family support can be administered in a torture treatment center.