Charles R. Figley

Tulane University | TU · School of Social Work

KEYWORDS Social work; promotion; full professor; associate professor; criteria; standards ABSTRACT This article offers some general guidelines to social work faculty seeking to be promoted to the rank of Full Professor, guidelines that we hope will provide a beginning discussion for individual programs to develop more transparent criteria and expec...

Purpose: The purpose of this systematic review is to fill the gap in a critical understanding of peer-reviewed empirical research on self-care practices to identify structural, relational, and individual-level facilitators and barriers to self-care practices in social work. Method: We followed the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews...

Scholarly literature has begun to report the psychosocial impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the general population and those who have fallen ill. Yet, few studies have explored the impact of COVID-19 on first responders and still fewer have focused on the impact of the pandemic on compassion fatigue among this highly exposed group. I...

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This first chapter provides the meaning and efforts by the Task Force that guided the development of the book, Pandemic Providers. We introduce the almost 100 members of our Task Force here and provide some of the reasons they joined together in their own words. We also asked them to describe how they experienced the pandemic and the impact it had...

The impact of “moral injury” (MI) among deployed veterans, defined as actions in combat that violate a veteran's moral beliefs and result in psychological distress, has increasingly become a significant clinical concern separate from other trauma- and stressor-related disorders. MI involves severe distress over violations of core beliefs often foll...

Introduction Since veteran suicide is a concern and our knowledge of predictive factors is still limited, our objective was to assess risk factors for suicide, including genetic factors, among deployed veterans. Methods For this study, we surveyed 1730 veterans who were outpatients in a multi-hospital system in Pennsylvania. Altogether, 1041 veter...

Background Maladaptive drinking is an increasing concern among military policy makers and healthcare providers. The goal of this study was to assess how social and psychological factors relate to alcohol problems among post-deployed US veterans and how problematic drinking is associated with well-being. Methods Data were collected via a telephone...

Objective: Countless communities worldwide are exposed directly and subsequently to the effects of massive-scale collective stressors, from natural disasters to human-caused. In contexts of collective adversity, health care providers who are also members of these communities share and interdependently affect the range of responses their patients ha...

Background This study focuses on factors that may disproportionately affect female veterans’ mental health, compared to men, and is part of a larger study assessing the prevalence of mental health disorders and treatment seeking among formerly deployed US military service members. Methods We surveyed a random sample of 1,730 veterans who were pati...

Background: The majority of Veterans Affair (VA) hospitals are in urban areas. We examined whether veterans residing in rural areas have lower mental health service use and poorer mental health status. Methods: Veterans with at least 1 warzone deployment in central and northeastern Pennsylvania were randomly selected for an interview. Mental hea...

Objective: Depression and anxiety are comorbid conditions that are disproportionately high among American Indians (AIs) or Alaska Natives. The purpose of this study was to identify potential risk (e.g., low income, intimate partner violence [IPV], adverse childhood experiences [ACEs]) and protective factors (e.g., family resilience, social and com...

This special issue and introduction focuses on promoting health equity and addressing health disparities among Indigenous peoples of the United States (U.S.) and associated Territories in the Pacific Islands and Caribbean. We provide an overview of the current state of health equity across social, physical, and mental health domains. In Part 1 of t...

In this chapter on combat social work and preparing the next generation for social injustice combat, the editorial team summarizes and discusses the lessons and the fundamental questions posed and answered throughout this book. They address the ethics of war by examining the issues of service, social justice, and the importance of human relationshi...

This chapter continues to prepare the reader to understand and appreciate the garrison duties of combat social workers (CSWs) and their day-to-day duties. Military social worker duties are similar to those within U.S. Veterans Administration and other institutions: administration, supervision, and direct practice. But a very special job of social w...

Indigenous peoples of the United States are distinct from other ethnic minorities because they have experienced colonization as the original inhabitants. Social and health disparities are connected to a context of historical oppression-the chronic, pervasive, and intergenerational experiences of oppression that, over time, may be normalized, impose...

Social workers have a long, proud history of service in most branches of the United States military. The experiences of social workers and other human service professionals of all military ranks have an important, often profound, and lasting impact that informs not only their practice within the military but throughout their career long after they...

Background Previously we reported a genetic risk score significantly improved PTSD prediction among a trauma-exposed civilian population. In the current study, we sought to assess this prediction among a trauma-exposed military population. Methods We examined current PTSD diagnosis and PTSD symptom severity among a random sample of 1042 community-...

Background: This study focuses on factors that may affect female veterans’ mental health, compared to men, and is part of a large study assessing the prevalence of mental health disorders and treatment seeking among formerly deployed US military service members. Methods: We surveyed a random sample of 1,730 veterans who were patients in a large non...

Background: This study focuses on factors that may disproportionately affect female veterans’ mental health, compared to men, and is part of a larger study assessing the prevalence of mental health disorders and treatment seeking among formerly deployed US military service members. Methods: We surveyed a random sample of 1,730 veterans who were pat...

Background: This study focuses on factors that may affect female veterans’ mental health, compared to men, and is part of a large study assessing the prevalence of mental health disorders and treatment seeking among formerly deployed US military service members. Methods: We surveyed a random sample of 1,730 veterans who were patients in a large non...

American Indians and Alaska Natives experience pervasive mental, behavioral, and physical health disparities, yet access to culturally relevant and evidenced-based programs (EBPs) are severely limited. The purpose of this research is to describe the process of conducting a rigorous and culturally sensitive research approach, which was used to infor...

Given chronic experiences of historical oppression, Indigenous peoples tend to experience much higher rates of depression than the general US population, which then, drives disproportionately high rates of suicide and other health disparities. The purpose of this research was to examine the core components of the culturally grounded Framework of Hi...

Background: Currently, there is interest in improving post-deployment mental health treatments among veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, yet most veterans do not use the VA healthcare system. Methods: We examined post-deployment mental health treatments among a sample of 235 community-based veterans receiving care in a large non-VA multihospital sys...

Social psychological theory hypothesizes that one’s identity, self-definitions, and meanings used for a particular social role fosters individual purpose in life and affects behavior in specific social situations. As such, it can be protective against the onset of psychological disorders. We examined this hypothesis with data collected from 1,730 m...

The purpose of this article is to introduce the Family Resilience Inventory (FRI) and present findings on initial efforts to validate this measure. The FRI is designed to assess family resilience in one's current family and in one's family of origin, enabling the assessment of family protective factors across these generations. The development of t...

Abstract This roundtable discussion will bring together those who study community violence with special attention to children of color living in poverty. In the last twelve years since the 2005 Katrina disaster, there has been growth in the study of community violence and related trauma in New Orleans. The city is still recovering after the devasta...

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is related to alteration in neuropsychological functioning, including visual and other cognitive processes. Grapheme-color synesthesia is a phenomenon in which a letter or number elicits response of a concurrent image or color perception. Since we earlier reported an association between grapheme-color synesthes...

This article, Part 1 of a 2-part series, is about how a team of faculty and graduate students was able to develop 3 undergraduate trauma courses and teach them successfully to 1,279 students over its first 4 years. This curriculum was developed at the School of Social Work, Tulane University, New Orleans. The article describes how trauma courses em...

This is an invited commentary that was published in the journal Families, Systems & Health in 1997 when our research team first began to recognize the US military's flaw in planning regarding the gap between active duty military, civilian, and the reserve forces: The gap in quality health care due to lack of access to military medicine and mental h...

Introduction Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder are considered the signature injuries of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. With the extensive use of improvised explosive devices by the enemy, the concussive effects from blast have a greater potential to cause mild TBI (mTBI) in military Service Members. These mTBI can...

This is the second part of our analysis of the military’s mental health care dilemma. Since the First World War, military and government officials have been quite wary of mass psychiatric attrition and escalating pension costs from warzones. Specifically, the military worries about unknown repercussions should war stress injuries be de-stigmatized...

As we reported in the previous two articles in this series, the U.S. military has actively attempted to deal with its mental health dilemma by utilizing 10 approaches. These strategies function to help the military avoid learning its war trauma lessons to the contrary, and it appears that their approach is to prevent or reduce mass psychiatric attr...

The military’s primary mission is to prevent, fight, and win wars. A critical key to its success is the military’s dual mission of force health protection that translates to preventing and treating the physical and psychological wounds of war in order to preserve the fighting force. To accomplish both missions, the military relies extensively on do...

Objective This study examined the effectiveness of traumatic incident reduction (TIR) among a sample of adults with trauma histories through a review of client records. TIR is a brief, structured, person-centered, memory-based intervention that helps individuals process traumatic memories, thus eliminating or significantly reducing negative psychol...

Descilo, T., Fava, N. M., Burke, S., Costa, I., Swanson, A., & Figley C. R. (2017).

Though there is considerable research to support using Game-Based Learning (GBL) in higher education, its implementation is lagging behind K-12 education by an order of magnitude. By considering the current state of GBL from leadership, primary consumer, academic and technical perspectives, the authors frame the main issues involved with successful...

This a the first chapter of a two volume textbook on Trauma Psychology that lays out the history of the study of trauma.

This is the first of a three-part systematic review of the potential benefits and harmful effects of the military’s century-old doctrine of frontline psychiatry or combat and operational stress control (COSC). Since the Second World War, psychiatric casualties have outnumbered the combined total of American service members both wounded and killed-i...

Using a stress process model, we examined social and psychological resources to better understand mental health outcomes among veterans. For this study we surveyed 700 U.S. veterans who were outpatients in the Geisinger Health System. Independent variables included demographic factors, stressful and traumatic events, social support measures, and ps...

The chapter reviews the literature and, among other things, suggests that the mechanism for the induction and reduction of symptoms of secondary trauma is the empathy applied to the "interpersonal response" that is the gateway for experiencing the distress of others.

This is the first of a three-part systematic review of the potential benefits and harmful effects of the military’s century-old doctrine of frontline psychiatry or combat and operational stress control (COSC). Since the Second World War, psychiatric casualties have outnumbered the combined total of American service members both wounded and killed-i...

The explicit mission of the military’s 100-year-old frontline psychiatry doctrine is to ensure that upwards to 95% of deployed service members diagnosed with war stress injury and/or psychiatric disorder are prevented from leaving war zones, unless they are either grossly incapacitated or pose imminent safety risks to self or others. In the final s...

The second of a three-part review provides the first-ever systematic investigation into the military’s claim that its century-old policy of preventing evacuation of psychiatric casualties from war zones is beneficial to the health and well-being of individual service members and their families. We conducted an extensive literature search for studie...

Resilience concepts have gained widespread use in scholarship and practice, yet definitions, measures, and uses of resilience remain complex and multifaceted. Resilience has been described as both an outcome and a process and has been used to refer to both individuals and communities. Scholars have also critiqued resilience theories and practice mo...

During the course of previous military conflicts, attention has been focused on separations experienced by service members and their loved ones. This study utilized the ABC-X model of Family Stress and Resiliency Theory to provide information about specific family and parental stressors, family coping, appraisal of stress and coping abilities, and...

Resilience represents coping with adversity and is in line with a more positive paradigm for viewing responses to adversity. Most research has focused on resilience as coping—a state-based response to adversity. However, a competing hypothesis views resilience or resiliency as a trait that exists across time and types of adversity. We tested underg...

This article focuses on the mechanism by which real or perceived distress of another in turn distresses us and the process by which we become undistressed. This secondary traumatic stress (STS) mechanism accounts for work-related stress experienced by social workers, psychologists, physicians, first responders, some administrative groups and others...

Although all minorities experience inequalities, indigenous peoples in the United States tend to experience the most severe violent victimization. Until now, an organizing framework to explain or address the disproportionate rates of violent victimization was absent. Thus, the purpose of this conceptual article is to (a) introduce the concept of hi...

Historically, the study of family resilience was largely disconnected with the study and treatment of trauma. Moreover, most examinations have not adequately accounted for the structural and ethnic diversity that is increasingly important in the United States. This is a severe gap in knowledge, given ethnic minorities tend to experience trauma at d...

The spouse of a military service member is in a special position to understand the behaviors of a service member better than anyone. These individuals live with the military members and are able to detect changes in behavior and increased stress reactions. Yet, there is limited published research focusing on spouses’ levels of awareness of posttrau...

This is a report of the process by which the Israeli expert panel on trauma resilience generated a set of axioms. The first part of the article discusses how the expert panel members were selected and polled to determine which among the membership were best qualified to be interviewed by the research team. The next section of the article describes...

This article examines three major options for transforming military mental healthcare in order to end the pattern of self-inflicted and largely preventable wartime behavioral health crises plaguing American veterans, their families, and broader society since the turn of the twentieth century. Evidence is provided that the first option of maintainin...

This paper calls for the creation of a unified, integrated Behavioral Health Corps (BHC). Building on previous publications and government reports, the paper reports on the cycle of bad decisions, indecision, and confusion in learning the lessons of previous war-related behavioral health service shortfalls. It is recommended that a special corps of...

This is the first of a two-part series of the contribution of organizational and leadership factors in perpetuating a generational cycle of preventable wartime behavioral health crises. The current study includes a comprehensive review of government-initiated studies on the policies, leadership, and organizational structure of military mental healt...

In comparison with the general population, research indicates a need for greater health equity among American Indian and Alaska Natives (AI/AN). AI/ANs have demonstrated remarkable resilience in response to centuries of historical oppression, yet growing evidence documents mental health disparities. Consequently, some AI/AN youth, defined as 18 yea...

Citation: Figley, C. R. (1982). Traumatization and comfort: Close relationships may be hazardous to your health. Keynote presentation at a conference, "Families and close relationships: Individuals in social interaction," Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, February. The traumatic stress research, including the study of PTSD (the mental disorde...

Background: After extensive review of official military records, government investigations, and news media accounts, the authors provide the first-ever examination of repetitive mental health crises after every major American war since the 20 th century. Method: Compelling evidence of generational crises is established using direct testimony from c...

This is the second of a two-part analysis of generational wartime mental health crises. Wartime mental health crisis has been defined as a sentinel public health event whereby mental health demand of the military population demonstrably exceeds the mental health system’s capacity to provide adequate access to timely, effective mental health and soc...

As the USA enters into its 12th year of war, the persistent drum beat of negative news headlines of unmet mental health and social needs of veterans fuels public perception of a twenty-first century military behavioral health crisis. For many Americans, the status quo harkens back to previous wartime crises. Wartime mental health crises continue to...

In comparison with the general population, research indicates a need for greater health equity among American Indian and Alaska Natives (AI/AN). AI/ANs have demonstrated remarkable resilience in response to centuries of historical oppression, yet growing evidence documents mental health disparities. Consequently, some AI/AN youth, defined as 18 yea...

U.S. Army Combat Medic serves as both Soldier and provider of combat casualty care, often in the heat of battle and with limited resources. Yet little is known about their help-seeking behavior and perceived stigma and barriers to care. Participants were three groups of U.S. Army Combat Medics surveyed at 3- and 12-months postdeployment from assign...

Cognitive appraisal and coping theory were used to examine parental stress, family stress, and personal stress among wives of deployed soldiers. A random sample of wives of U.S. Army personnel deployed to Iraq provided evidence that length of deployment, rank of deployed soldier, and number of previous deployments, impacted these wives during deplo...

On 23 March 2010, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law. Implications of the ACA on mental healthcare for 9.7 million active-duty, reserve, and family members and 22.2 million veterans, as well as 1.3 uninsured veterans, is reviewed in light of a major crisis. The authors trace historical roots of the ACA to the Second World...

Objective: To evaluate mental health outcomes among New Jersey shore residents with health impairments and disabilities after Hurricane Sandy. Design and setting: Six months following Hurricane Sandy, a cross-sectional survey of 200 adults residing in beach communities directly exposed to the storm located in Monmouth County, NJ, was conducted....

The U.S. Army Combat Medic faces enormous stress as both soldier and trauma care provider. This study provides an initial assessment of the mental health attitudes and behaviors of these soldiers. To date, there is no known research assessing Combat Medic behavioral health or their help seeking behavior following deployment. Medics who were 12 mont...