GTP Community Advisory Board
(GTP-CAB)
The Grady Trauma Project - Community Advisory Board (GTP-CAB) is a group that meets to strengthen our relationship with the Atlanta community. The GTP team recognizes that the best way to conduct rigorous research, address the needs of our participants, and engage with the broader Atlanta community is to get and use community input in developing/informing research studies and interventions.
The GTP-CAB includes 6 -10 individuals, including previous participants, community activists, health care providers, scholars, and non-profit organizations. All members have a personal investment in understanding factors that contribute to the prevention and development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other stress-related disorders among underserved and underrepresented communities in Atlanta, Georgia.
Goals
Our goals include:
1) Identify community priorities, needs, and interests.
2) Provide opportunities for reflection on previous participation in research studies.
3) Provide input and/or resources for GTP’s research activities.
4) Promote community support for involvement with GTP research and interventions and GTP engagement with the community.
Updates
GTP hosted another successful CAB meeting on Thursday, October 21st. The first half of the meeting consisted of a brief recap of improvements made from the last meeting feedback:
o Final rollout of the Screen debriefing- used after our clinical interviews to ensure our participants feel okay after the screens. The debriefing will also ensure we provide each participant access to resources that will be most beneficial to them.
o The Healthcare experience questionnaire assesses how interactions with healthcare professionals impact individuals and is a potential measure that might be used in future studies. To ensure we capture all feedback from our CAB members, we will email a form that can be edited and revisit this in future meetings.
Briefly discussed Present work:
o We discussed the importance of collecting biological and physiological data and how trauma gets under the skin and can impact the body, brain, and behavior.
o How the COVID shutdown affected GTP: From in-person screens to virtual screens, to resuming important GTP in-office visits-data used as biomarkers for understanding PTSD.
We heard from Dr. Abby Lott about a new study, MamaBear:
o This study looks at the mechanistic links between maternal PTSD and early infant emotional development. This study will utilize clinical interviews, fMRI, behavioral interactions, and hormonal levels in order to understand the link between post-traumatic stress and maternal emotional reactivity/regulation on infant distress cues.
The Second half of the meeting involved the GTP hearing from CAB members, gathering feedback from participants who may have experience with some of our in-office visits, and asking questions about Mamabear. Additionally, we heard more feedback on a name idea for a trauma-informed yoga group. We look forward to hearing more from Dr. Kelly about the rollout of this project.
We are continuing our conversation on critical needs that the community feels can be addressed through research.
Members
There are currently five GTP-CAB members who are prior GTP participants from our ongoing studies, in addition to our four members from Atlanta-based health organizations:
Ms . Janina Daniels
Communication Director
The Center for Black Women's Wellness
Dr. Stacy Schmidt
Internal Medicine
Emory at Grady
Dr. Keith Wood
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Emory at Grady
Mrs. Sybil Miller
Communications Director
SisterLove