Aberdeen Centre for Trauma Research (ACTR)

Visit ACTR's host research institute at Robert Gordon University

Related Content
Neurological and Mental Health

The mission of the Aberdeen Centre for Trauma Research (ACTR) is to conduct high quality trauma-related research, provide short training courses, and undertake consultancy.

Recognised nationally and internationally as a centre of excellence in the field of trauma, much of our research is multidisciplinary in nature and embraces trauma-related issues within the clinical, educational, and occupational domains. Consequently, our research overlaps significantly with each of the Institute Themes.

Our key research focus is the development and evaluation of evidence-based practices in the trauma response management of military and emergency service personnel.

Download the IHWR Aberdeen Centre for Trauma Research Flyer

Current Projects

Police (Special Ops) Research Group
Recently established to undertake innovative research into various aspects of crisis management by the police service to ensure that policing operations and the training of officers are evidence-based (including hostage/crisis negotiators and Authorised Firearms Officers [AFOs]). Funded by the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR), related research is being undertaken on: (i) the “epidemiology” of hostage-related and other incidents to which police negotiators are deployed; (ii) the perceived value of their deployment, and (iii) resilience displayed by police officers in the face of “critical incidents”.

Psychosocial Response to Major Incidents
Commissioned by the Department of Health (DOH)/NATO, we provided an evidence-base for the psychosocial response to major incidents (including terrorist events) to which all NATO countries have now signed up.

To develop further some of its recommendations, the DoH has commissioned a project team to define the appropriate skills for emergency personnel in relation to a psychosocial response.

Long Term Managment of Combat-related Injuries
Funded by the Headley Court Trust, the aims of this three year longitudinal case-control study are to identify in combat-injured personnel the:

(i) durability of psychiatric and psychosocial gains from rehabilitation following combat-related injury, and
(ii) impact of combat-related injury on the partners of military personnel in terms of mental health, psychosocial adjustment, and relationships.

British Social Attitudes Towards the Military and Contemporary Conflict
Based on the outcome of a scoping review conducted by the ACTR and commissioned by the Scottish Government, we are working in collaboration with the Department of War Studies and King’s Centre for Military Health Research (King’s College London), on a two-year ESRC-funded study to explore public attitudes towards Service and ex-Service personnel (veterans) and their views on the recent conflict in Iraq and the ongoing campaign in Afghanistan.

The work involves the development and evaluation of a new topic module of questions within the 2011 British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA); an annual survey conducted under the aegis of the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen).

Contact

Dr Susan Klein