About

Certain workgroups, such as the military, emergency services personnel, health-care workers, and journalists face elevated risk of exposure to potentially traumatic events (PTEs) through undertaking their work roles. Exposure to traumatic events can have significant adverse physical, psychological, and social outcomes. Historically, research has focused on the development and management of mental disorders (such as posttraumatic stress disorder) following exposure to a traumatic event. However, focusing on a pathogenic framework following a traumatic event may not fully capture or reflect an individual’s experience or functioning post-trauma. A growing body of research has demonstrated that some trauma survivors can experience positive psychological change or adaption following a traumatic event, known as posttraumatic growth (PTG). Over the longer-term, PTG has been shown to lessen the severity and likelihood of trauma-related mental health symptomatology and can lead to higher satisfaction with life. Accordingly, there is a clear impetus for increasing awareness of and promoting PTG among occupations and community groups at risk of exposure to traumatic events.

This presentation will describe a PhD research program focused on measuring and promoting PTG literacy and skills in Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel. This PhD research program provides the first empirical research into PTG in the ADF. The newly developed and evaluated PGLS will facilitate the measurement of PTG literacy in other workgroups, in addition to being an accessible measure to evaluate extant or new PTG programs which include a psychoeducation (literacy) component. This research program contributes to the psychological preparedness of workgroups with trauma-exposed roles, through the development and evaluation of the PTG-EdGE program. Adopting a proactive approach, PTG-EdGE was designed for delivery in conjunction with existing event-driven PTG programs, thereby providing a continuum of support in the pre-incident and post-trauma phases. Supported by the findings from the controlled trial, the PTG-EdGE program could be scaled and adapted for implementation in other workgroups with trauma-exposed roles.

Speaker

Jennifer Wheeler is a PhD candidate in the Centre for Mental Health Research at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health (NCEPH), Australian National University. She is supervised by Assoc. Prof. Louise Farrer (primary), Prof. Alison Calear and Dr Ameila Gulliver. Jennifer is a registered psychologist who has worked in the Australian Public Service for over twenty years. For thirteen years, Jennifer held the role of Director Navy Psychology in the Department of Defence. In this role, Jennifer managed and oversaw the delivery of psychology services in Navy, in addition to the development and implementation of policy, strategic plans and psychology programs. Jennifer provided high-level contribution and advice to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veterans Suicides and was a Commonwealth expert witness. Jennifer was awarded the Sir Roland Wilson Foundation scholarship in February 2023 to complete her ANU PhD program in posttraumatic growth. Jennifer is completing the Sir Roland Wilson scholarship on secondment from the Department of Defence.