Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

Experts Unite on Early Trauma Support

Should journalists and other witnesses of traumatic or violent events receive mandatory counseling or debriefing in the immediate aftermath?

Anthony Feinstein Wins Ochberg Award

Second Recipient of Award for Media and Trauma Study

When the history of journalism's discovery of the importance of understanding trauma comes to be written, a place of honor will go to Dr Anthony Feinstein.

The NICE Guidelines

A Frontline Club Discussion

Britain's National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) recently published the most comprehensive guidelines compiled to date on effective treatments for post-traumatic stress (PSTD).

Unraveling Media and Trauma Connections

Researcher Stresses Importance of Scientific Approach

By Meg Spratt

An interview by Meg Spratt with Betty Pfefferbaum, a research psychiatrist and professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Oklahoma. 

Natural Disaster and Mental Health Issues

By Alexander McFarlane

Guidance from an experienced psychiatrist on mental health issues and how they evolve in regions devastated by natural disasters.

'Unprecedented' Report Examines War Effects

Mental-Health Stigma May Keep Sufferers from Seeking Help

By Jesse Tarbert

About one out of six veterans (15.6 to 17.1 percent) returning from Iraq met criteria for combat-related psychiatric disorders, including depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, researchers say in a report published today in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Report on Ground Zero

By Mike Cane

Elana Newman, Ph.D., a University of Tulsa associate professor of psychology, and Barbara Monseu, a Denver investment consultant who as a school district official had coordinated responses to students, families and staff following the April 1999 Columbine High School shooting, went to New York City for the Dart Center in December 2002. For more than six months they directed Dart Center Ground Zero (DCGZ). Their goal: To link journalists affected by the attacks to emotional, technical and physical support resources.These three articles review the achievements of that project, which was funded by a grant from the Dart Foundation. They are drawn from the project report, written by Monseu and Newman, and from interviews with Newman.

Covering the Tsunami

A Frontline Club Discussion

In recent years, journalists have become more aware of the emotional aspects of the stories they cover, particularly in the aftermath of tragedy. Nowadays, says David Loyn, the BBC's developing world correspondent, "We get alongside people; we have sympathy with them; we empathise with them." A Frontline Club discussion.

Mentally Unfit, Forced to Fight

By Lisa Chedekel and Matthew Kaufman

The U.S. military is sending troops with serious psychological problems into Iraq and is keeping soldiers in combat even after superiors have been alerted to suicide warnings and other signs of mental illness, a Courant investigation has found. Originally published in the Hartford Courant, May 2006.

A Long Ride on the Thunderbolt

By William Birnbauer

This is the story of the confrontation between a man and a psychiatric doctor who treated him with unmodified electro-convulsive therapy as an adolescent, and the other forms of abuse he suffered. Originally published in The Age (Melbourne, Australia), on March 13, 1999.