Introduction and presentation of the main objectives

"I have problems falling asleep at all and in case I do fall asleep eventually I have nightmares and wake up soaked in sweat. Every sound makes me shiver. My family and friends don't understand me. I feel as if I was ling inside a whole different world"

This way or similar is how many soldiers feel after returning home from a war related mission. The war scenery and its occurrences have changed them in a way so drastic, that they are incapable of living a normal life. Apart from the physical injuries one can suffer in a war, psychological injuries are very likely. Usually the returning soldiers are granted a few months to readapt by their social environment. However often times this process exceeds this time by far which causes the social environment to react with a lack of understanding and leads to the fact that the abnormal behavior is attributed to a possibly developing psychological disease rather than to a normal course of reaction to the experiences made during the mission.

The main objective of the project "Prevention and Treatment of Psychotrauma" is to prevent undesired effects of potentially traumatizing situations experienced during a mission,. The research team takes great effort in developing a differentiated screening system as well as appropriate materials and methods of training and conveying knowledge. In order to meet the end concerning a screening system, the Cologne Risk Index - Military version was developed , allowing an estimation of the psychotraumatological risk after critical incidents in the course of military missions..

Objectives of the project

target group oriented support and help after potentially traumatizing incidents

Evaluation and Validation of the Cologne Risk Index - Military version

Development of a training manual suitable for clinical psychologists, industrial-organizational psychologists and peers (term used within the German Federal armed Forces to describe soldiers who were specially trained to support comrades after critical incidents)

The Training Concept

According to the multiplicationary system, the knowledge and know how required should be passed on within the Psychological Service of the German Federal Armed forces by certified professionals. The contents are divided into three levels and directed to the different vocational groups involved:

Level A - contains basic information on psychotrauma and target group oriented help for soldiers. This knowledge is essential for all persons involved, but is of especially high importance for the peers who are often first on scene. It is intended to prepare them for situations in which they encounter acute traumatization.
Level B - includes the material from level A and conveys further insight on screening for risk factors (CRI-Mv) and PTSD diagnostics. Additionally the TGIP is presented in a more profound way. The material given in Level B is directed at professionals such as army psychologists.
Level C - presents information on trauma therapy and the neurobiology of PTSD. It is suitable for psychologists and doctors in clinical practice.

The training sessions vary in accordance with the professional qualification and the field of occupation regarding both size and complexity. During the course of the project work several training sessions were held already.

So far, the project team has produced two parallel versions of the training manual: a paper-pencil version on the one hand, and the computer based eReader on the other hand. During the process of research, the training material went through a process of continuous alteration and improvement concerning structure as well as contents. Since March 2003 we are able to present the new version 3.0.

eReader 3.0

Whats new?

We are able to present a validated version of the CRI-Mv (2.1) which was developed on the basis of the CRI-Mv 1.0 and was tested on a sample of more than 1000 soldiers.
The concept of target group oriented intervention was further adapted to the situational frame of the German Federal Armed Forces. This led in return to a significant enlargement of the according chapters.
We decided to combine the chapters on self help and Stabilization which caused a change in the order of chapters.
We incorporated comments and criticism gained during various workshops which results in an expansion of the chapter on didactics. This is intended to facilitate the implementation of the training material within the German Federal Armed Forces and provide support for those planning and doing workshops.
The differentiation of the training material into three levels has proven to be effective. Due to the fact that we included the experiences gained during the workshops we did, we may now present a more advanced and accurate structure of the training material and the levels.
The computer based version, the eReader 3.0 provides the German Federal Armed Forces with the possibility to recombine and compile the training material for their own purposes on the computer.