Developing Signs of Safety: A Deaf-Accessible Counseling Toolkit for Trauma and Addiction

Clin Psychol Psychother. 2021 Apr 13. doi: 10.1002/cpp.2596. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTThe U.S. Deaf community - more than half a million Americans who communicate using American Sign Language (ASL) - experiences higher rates of trauma exposure and substance use disorder (SUD) than the general population. Yet, there are no evidence-based treatments for any behavioral health condition that have been evaluated for use with Deaf people. The driving aim of our work, therefore, has been to develop and formally evaluate a Deaf-accessible trauma/SUD counseling approach. Here we describe our initial intervention development work and a single-arm pilot that evaluated the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary clinical efficacy of Signs of Safety - a Deaf-accessible toolkit to be used with an existing, widely adopted protocol for trauma and addiction (Seeking Safety). Preliminary efficacy results indicated clinically significant reductions in PTSD symptoms and frequency of alcohol use for the Seeking Safety/Signs of Safety model. Frequency of drug use did not change significantly - likely attributable to the mid-study legalization of recreational marijuana in our state. Next steps include the redesign and refilming of Signs of Safety based on pilot participant feedback, again using a Deaf-engaged development and production process. This new toolkit will be tested via a pilot randomized controlled trial designed based on present methodological lessons learned.PMID:33847426 | DO...
Source: Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Source Type: research