The CARE Study

25 Feb The CARE Study

The goal of this study is to conduct an initial open pilot trial of the online PTSD prevention/recovery promotion program CARE for sexual minority bias violence survivors and their supporters. CARE is a two-session intervention for violence survivors and their supporters (e.g., friends, family) that seeks to facilitate natural recovery by normalizing trauma reactions, encouraging survivors to utilize discussion of their trauma reactions with a trusted person as a coping strategy, discussing ways that supporters can initiate support conversations, and assisting supporters in providing helpful disclosure reactions to survivors. CARE also includes a workbook for survivors and supporters to facilitate helpful discussions of the survivor’s trauma reactions and to reinforce intervention skills. The goal of this open pilot will be to further refine the CARE content and evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of research procedures and program implementation.

Participant Eligibility

Participating survivors must: 1) identify as a sexual minority on demographic screening items; 2) report that they experienced an act of violence in the past three months where they were targeted at least in part based on one or more of their identities (e.g., race/ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, immigration status); 3) report current PTSD symptoms in connection to their experience of bias-related violence, operationalized as endorsing at least three of five possible PTSD symptoms on the Primary Care PTSD Screen for DSM-5 in connection to the incident (Prins et al., 2016); 4) be 18 years of age or older; 5) read and speak English fluently; 6) live in the United States; 7) report consistent access to a phone, tablet, and/or computer with high-speed internet access/Wi-Fi, 8) report ownership of a smartphone with a data plan or consistent access to Wi-Fi to complete the EMA; 9) be able to identify an eligible supporter who is aware and supportive of their sexual minority identity as well as their experience of bias-related violence.

Participating supporters must 1) be 18 years of age or older; 2) read and speak English fluently; 3) live in the United States; 4) be aware and supportive of the survivor’s sexual minority identity; 5) already be aware of the survivor’s bias-related violence experience; 6) report consistent access to a phone, tablet, and/or computer with high-speed internet access/Wi-Fi, 7) report ownership of a smartphone with a data plan or consistent access to Wi-Fi to complete the EMA; 8) report an ability to attend two telehealth sessions; 9) not be in a formal caretaking relationship with the survivor (e.g., currently is the survivor’s therapist or counselor).

**Note: We are a national recruitment study so there is no location exclusion criteria for participants who live in the US.

Contact

Madison Widick (she/hers)
(970) 217-4044