LSU Announces Partnership to Research Workplace Trauma Care

05/08/2020
BATON ROUGE – One growing need in the workforce is the ability to provide immediate care after a traumatic event in order to reduce psychological distress. After an accident or incident, organizations should aim to quickly reduce psychological harm and the costs associated with legal, emotional, and physical care for victims. LSU is now on the forefront of research associated with crisis care planning. LSU and the Family Assistance Education & Research Foundation, or FAERF, are announcing a long-term partnership to research and establish care training for business organization leaders and employees on how to interact with survivors and family members of victims impacted by a crisis leading to tragedies occurring in the workplace or other locations during the commission of business. 

LSU and the FAERF will work together to create a range of educational programs intended to improve humanitarian assistance to those impacted by trauma due to accidents and other distressing events in the workplace. The goal is to develop and deliver a range of research projects to establish programs and educational content for businesses to utilize when interacting with individuals affected by traumatic events in the workplace.

“For the better part of 30 years, we have gathered anecdotal data on how human service workers from multiple disciplines both help and harm survivors of workplace trauma,” said FAERF CEO Carolyn Coarsey. “At FAERF, we are excited to partner with LSU and the academic community in order to research and establish best practices for supporting survivors and business organizations experiencing trauma in their workplace.” 

LSU and the FAERF will work to develop programs employees can take to learn proper ways to limit distress as result of workplace trauma. Aspects of the programs include a credit-based graduate certificate program and a University-wide process of awarding stipends for workplace trauma research.

“Across the campus, LSU has faculty and staff who are experts in a wide variety of legal, business, psychological, and physical areas,” said Associate Dean of the College of Human Sciences & Education Arend Van Gemmert. “We are excited to combine our knowledge with the wealth of experience gained by Dr. Coarsey and her extensive team of collaborators. This will help to improve lives in our community and around the world.”

LSU entities that are members of the partnership currently include the National Center for Biomedical Research and Training/Academy of Counter-Terrorist Education, the College of Human Sciences & Education, the College of Humanities & Social Sciences and the Office of Digital and Continuing Education.  

 

 

Contact Ernie Ballard
LSU Media Relations
225-578-5685
eballa1@lsu.edu 

or

Beth Carter
LSU NCBRT/ACE
office: (225) 578-5274 | cell: (225) 302-0152
ecarter@ncbrt.lsu.edu