Category: Program / Treatment Design
Danielle Morabito, M.S.
Doctoral student
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida
Brad Schmidt, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
Florida State University, Psychology Department
Tallahassee, Florida
Sherry Stewart, Ph.D.
Professor
Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Shanara Visvalingam, Other
Macquarie University
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Sarah Redden, M.S.
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida
Danielle Morabito, M.S.
Doctoral student
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida
Carter Bedford, PhD
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida
Despite the clear burden of mental health disorders and presence of effective evidence-based treatments, the majority of affected individuals go untreated due to a variety of individual and systemic barriers. On an individual level, prominent barriers include lack of awareness or perceived need, negative stigma, lack of time or financial resources, and geographic influences (Collins et al., 2004; Mojtabai et al., 2011). Meanwhile, systematic barriers, which are often exacerbated in emergency situations (e.g., COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, mass violence) include limited availability of services, lack of integration of mental health services into primary care, and low rates of evidence-based service provision (Kantor et al., 2017).
Thus, increased efforts have been made to develop and examine brief online interventions that provide psychoeducation and evidence-based skills. These interventions are cost-effective and amendable to broad dissemination. Interventions targeting malleable risk factors may be particularly promising, due to their broad applicability for clinical and at-risk populations. Additionally, prior research on these treatments suggests advantages in targeting comorbid disorders (e.g., Dear et al., 2015; Short et al., 2020).
This talk reviews the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of several recently developed web-based interventions targeting malleable transdiagnostic risk factors among vulnerable populations. The first two presentations focus on programs targeted specifically toward university students in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the first talk describes an online group-based intervention aimed at reducing general and pandemic related distress as well as substance use risk, the second details the examination of a program aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with perfectionism. Our third talk presents the evaluation of an alternative method of addressing perfectionism through brief exposure-based treatment. Next, we introduce a novel treatment focused on addressing the negative consequences of tonic immobility, or freeze-response, during a traumatic event among adults with elevated posttraumatic stress symptoms. The fifth and final talk presents results from a randomized clinical trial (RCT) of an intervention targeting interpersonal risk for suicide among active-duty military. The overall utility of these interventions and implications of our findings will be discussed by a distinguished researcher with a prominent record of developing and evaluating mechanistic interventions.
Presenter: Fakir Yunus, Ph.D. – Dalhousie University, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
Co-author: Patricia Conrod, PhD – University of Montreal
Co-author: Laura Lambe, PhD – Dalhousie University
Co-author: Audrey Livet, PhD – University of Montreal
Co-author: Raquel Nogueira-Arjona, PhD – University of Roehampton
Co-author: Katherine Rose, MA – The University of British Columbia - Okanagan Campus
Co-author: Cassidy Wallace, MA – The University of British Columbia - Okanagan Campus
Co-author: Matthew Keough, Ph.D. – York University
Co-author: Kara Thompson, Ph.D. – St. Francis Xavier University
Co-author: Marvin Krank, PhD – The University of British Columbia - Okanagan Campus
Co-author: Sherry H. Stewart, Ph.D. – Dalhousie University
Presenter: Shanara Visvalingam, Other – Macquarie University
Co-author: Hannah McHardy, BPsych(Hons) – Macquarie University
Co-author: Susanne Norder, BPsych(Hons), MClinPsych – Macquarie University
Co-author: Natasha Magson, PhD – Macquarie University
Co-author: Melissa M. Norberg, Ph.D. – Macquarie University
Presenter: Sarah Redden, M.S. – Florida State University
Co-author: Jesse R. Cougle, Ph.D. – Florida State University
Presenter: Danielle M. Morabito, M.S. – Florida State University
Co-author: Norman Schmidt, Ph.D. – Florida State University
Presenter: Carter E. Bedford, PhD – Florida State University
Co-author: Aoife Trotter, High School Diploma – Florida State University
Co-author: Norman Schmidt, Ph.D. – Florida State University