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CONTACT: Rosanne Fohn, fohn@uthscsa.edu, (210) 567-3026
SAN ANTONIO (Nov. 18, 2019) – Veterans in the Texas Gulf Coast area can receive a three-week, intensive-outpatient treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in San Antonio at no cost, thanks to a grant that pays for therapy, travel and lodging.
Funding for the program, called Project Remission, was made possible by a partnership between the Bob Woodruff Foundation and the Qatar Harvey Fund to support veterans who were affected by Hurricane Harvey.
“The Qatar Harvey Fund and the Bob Woodruff Foundation have a multi-year partnership to provide grants to best-in-class organizations addressing the needs of veterans in storm-afflicted parts of Texas,” said His Excellency Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad Al-Thani, Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the U.S. “Through our work in the region, we’ve learned that storm recovery isn’t just about property damage. Ensuring mental health and wellness is one of the most important things we can do.”
The grant will pay for 40 post-9/11 veterans from 41 Texas counties affected by the massive 2017 storm to travel to San Antonio for treatment. They will receive an enhanced form of Prolonged Exposure (PE) therapy, a leading evidence-based treatment for PTSD, from therapists with the STRONG STAR Consortium based at UT Health San Antonio.
Project Remission is part of STRONG STAR’s ongoing work to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the psychological wounds of war and to help the hundreds of thousands of post-9/11 veterans and military service members who suffer from PTSD. While evidence-based treatments are available for PTSD, individuals with combat-related PTSD have lower recovery rates with those therapies than do civilians whose PTSD may be due to assault, natural disaster, motor vehicle accidents or other traumas. Some reasons may be that combat veterans have been exposed to a greater number of traumas and a wider variety of trauma types over one or multiple deployments, making their cases more complicated and difficult to treat.
For these reasons, Project Remission includes several enhancements to standard outpatient PE therapy designed to improve treatment outcomes with combat PTSD and give patients a better chance of recovery.
Project Remission recently was evaluated in a randomized clinical trial in which patients had an average reduction of symptoms that was double the amount generally considered clinically significant.
“The grant funding from the Bob Woodruff Foundation and Qatar Harvey Fund allows us to provide this cutting-edge therapy to help relieve the suffering of more than three dozen psychologically wounded warriors whose lives also were impacted by Hurricane Harvey,” said STRONG STAR Director Alan Peterson, Ph.D., a UT Health San Antonio professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, who developed Project Remission. “It also gives us an opportunity to take what we’ve learned through our research and apply it to a clinical program that could serve as a national model and potentially help thousands more.”
Anne Marie Dougherty, CEO of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, added, “High-quality, evidence-based mental health care treatment makes a real difference for veterans and their families who are recovering from the psychological impact of their service. We are pleased to provide this Bob Woodruff Foundation-Qatar Harvey Fund grant to support Project Remission so their team of qualified clinicians can continue to provide effective PTSD treatment to veterans from the Texas Gulf Coast region.”
For additional information on Project Remission, or to inquire about participation, please visit www.strongstar.org/IOP-GulfCoast.
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For current news from the UT Health Science Center San Antonio, now called UT Health San Antonio™, please visit our online newsroom, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
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The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, now called UT Health San Antonio®, is one of the country’s leading health sciences universities. With missions of teaching, research, healing and community engagement, its schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced 36,500 alumni who are leading change, advancing their fields and renewing hope for patients and their families throughout South Texas and the world. To learn about the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit www.uthscsa.edu.
CONTACT: Rosanne Fohn, fohn@uthscsa.edu, (210) 567-3026
SAN ANTONIO (Nov. 18, 2019) – Training is now available for community mental health providers in the Texas Gulf Coast region who serve military veterans affected by Hurricane Harvey. The program provides training in evidence-based treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This new opportunity is made possible through a grant from the Bob Woodruff Foundation in partnership with the Qatar Harvey Fund.
The grant supports the STRONG STAR Training Initiative at UT Health San Antonio, which strives to improve combat veterans’ access to high-quality care for PTSD by training community mental health providers. Although hundreds of thousands of military service members and veterans nationwide suffer from post-traumatic stress, many do not have providers in their local communities who are trained in the leading therapies or in how best to deliver them to combat veterans.
The need for such providers is increasing as many service members and veterans seek care outside the military and VA systems due to provider backlogs, lack of VA or military clinics in their communities or concerns about stigma. In the Texas Gulf Coast region, where there can be long drives between major metropolitan areas, the need may be even greater as veterans with combat-related stress may have problems compounded by the trauma of Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath.
“This generous grant from the Bob Woodruff Foundation and Qatar Harvey Fund will enable us to train 90 additional mental health providers serving the many veterans impacted by Hurricane Harvey,” said Katy Dondanville, Psy.D., associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at UT Health San Antonio and director of the STRONG STAR Training Initiative. “This training will increase access to the leading PTSD therapies for these veterans in the communities where they live and give them a greater opportunity for recovery.”
“The Qatar Harvey Fund is supporting long-term recovery in southeast Texas, not only replacing what was damaged, but rebuilding more resilient communities,” said His Excellency Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad Al-Thani, Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the U.S. “We are proud to partner with STRONG STAR, whose work truly is transforming the landscape of community-based mental health care available to veterans in the Texas Gulf Coast.”
With the funding provided to the STRONG STAR Training Initiative, community providers can enroll in “learning communities” that will offer training and consultation over the course of a year, beginning with workshops to be held in Houston in January, February and March of 2020. Providers will be able to choose from learning communities that offer training and support in delivering either Prolonged Exposure or Cognitive Processing Therapy, the two leading evidence-based PTSD treatments.
Clinicians who enroll in the program may be eligible for a stipend through the Bob Woodruff Foundation. These clinical stipends provide funding to defray costs associated with participating in the learning communities. This includes funds to support clinicians attending the two-day training workshop and subsequently providing PTSD treatment for three post-9/11 veterans or family members affected by Hurricane Harvey. Providers who complete the learning community will be recognized as STRONG STAR Training Initiative Rostered Providers and will be eligible for an additional stipend allowing them to attend the 2020 San Antonio Combat PTSD Conference.
The Bob Woodruff Foundation has provided funding for the STRONG STAR Training Initiative since it began in 2017. Through this initiative, UT Health San Antonio faculty share their unparalleled expertise in delivering PTSD treatment to hundreds of active military personnel and veterans through clinical trials affiliated with the STRONG STAR Consortium. Besides training in the top research-supported PTSD therapies, the program includes education on how to deliver those therapies in culturally appropriate ways that enhance their appeal to and effectiveness with military service members and veterans. Providers who complete the learning community requirements are eligible for continuing education credits.
“Mental health providers who are trained in culturally competent, evidence-based treatments are better equipped to help our veterans and their families. That’s why we’ve invested in the STRONG STAR Training Initiative, which is addressing this critical need,” said Anne Marie Dougherty, CEO of the Bob Woodruff Foundation. “We are proud to continue our support of the Training Initiative through this Bob Woodruff Foundation-Qatar Harvey Fund grant to train mental health providers in the Texas Gulf Coast region, and to provide organizational consultation to ensure long-term sustainability of programs providing evidence-based treatments for PTSD in the region.”
For more information or to inquire about enrollment, please contact the STRONG STAR Training Initiative at training@strongstar.org or visit www.strongstartraining.org
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For current news from the UT Health Science Center San Antonio, now called UT Health San Antonio™, please visit our online newsroom, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
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The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, now called UT Health San Antonio®, is one of the country’s leading health sciences universities. With missions of teaching, research, healing and community engagement, its schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced 36,500 alumni who are leading change, advancing their fields and renewing hope for patients and their families throughout South Texas and the world. To learn about the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit www.uthscsa.edu.
President Henrich of UT Health said the institution has amassed nearly $389 million in cancer research funds over the past decade and developed more than 20 cancer drugs.
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The threshold for when to perform elective surgery in a frail patient may be much higher than previously thought, according to new research coauthored by Paula Shireman, M.D., M.S., M.B.A., of UT Health San Antonio. The journal JAMA Surgery published the findings Nov. 13.
The retrospective study of 432,828 patients treated in veterans hospitals between 2010 and 2014 found that frail patients were more likely to die within 30, 90 and 180 days after surgery than non-frail patients. This was true even after low-stress surgical procedures such as cystoscopy (scope of the bladder) and moderate-stress procedures such as laparoscopic cholecystectomy (minimally invasive gallbladder removal). The 30-day mortality rate among frail patients after a low-stress procedure was 1.55%. For frail patients who underwent a moderate-stress surgery, it was 5.13%. These rates are higher than the 1% mortality rate often used to define high-risk surgery, the authors wrote.
Dr. Shireman, a professor of surgery and practicing vascular surgeon in the Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio and the South Texas Veterans Health Care System, said the study offers guidance to surgeons, patients and families about whether a frail patient should undergo surgery, particularly elective procedures.
“Elective cases — that’s really where the take-home message of this study is,” Dr. Shireman said. “If a frail patient shows up in an emergency situation, it’s different. But what about elective cases? Do you do the surgery? Is it in a patient’s best interest?”
In the basement of the Holly Auditorium and down a short hallway, you’ll find a locked door. While there are many locked doors at UT Health San Antonio, some containing dangerous chemicals and medical equipment, this door is locked for a different reason: to provide a safe space for anyone who needs it.
This safe space houses our Title IX office. Title IX is a federal law that prohibits discrimination or exclusion from any education program or activity on the basis of sex. John Kaulfus, Ed.D., director and chief student affairs officer, has led the Title IX office at UT Health San Antonio for nearly five years.
Dr. Kaulfus’ duties include overseeing all Title IX complaints involving students, faculty, residents and trainees, developing Title IX training for all employees, and administering campuswide Title IX programming and outreach efforts.
Due to the nature of his work, no two days in the office look the same.
“I may have my whole day planned and one walk-in or phone call can completely change the course of the day or week,” he said. “The good news is that I have a wonderful team of 15 incredible professionals who put the needs of the students first and take great care to ensure that all policies and processes we oversee are fair, equitable and expediently administered.”
Every day, Dr. Kaulfus’ mission of making sure everyone is able to work and learn in a safe and healthy environment motivates him to ensure that students know there are resources and dedicated professionals on campus to help them in times of need. His mission motivates him to continue striving toward fulfilling the organization’s mission of helping make lives better.
“When people enter my office carrying a heavy emotional burden, it is my job to either take that burden from them or lighten their burden as much as possible,” Dr. Kaulfus said. “Title IX and behavior intervention work is not easy, but it is important and we get to see our efforts succeed, often in real-time. We always seek to educate first and solve issues at the lowest level. Given the nature of my position, I often first meet people during the most challenging times in their lives. It is so gratifying to see them six months to a year later matriculating, working, saving lives, providing care and/or teaching again.”
Apart from his duties as Title IX director, Dr. Kaulfus encourages his colleagues to get involved.
“Get out of your office. Attend concerts sponsored by the president’s office. Volunteer to serve on a working committee or two. Support the SECC, donate to a program on campus that you believe in such as Alzheimer’s research or cancer research, donate to the holiday toy drive, form a walking team and get your steps in, just get involved,” he said.
Dr. Kaulfus’ commitment to our mission and his work is reflected in his words.
“Nothing makes me happier than to have our former students reach out to me to share their success stories from their residencies, internships, fellowships, post-docs and jobs. Our students are literally changing the world and all of us played a part in that.”
Click here for more information on Title IX and how you can report sexual harassment