CPS Professor Participates in NSU/Broward Sheriff’s Office Conference

Vincent Van Hasselt, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at the Center for Psychological Studies and Director of the Family Violence Program, was a participant in a conference co-sponsored by NSU and the Broward Sheriff’s Office entitled: “Encountering and Surviving the Threat.” The purpose of the conference was to provide law enforcement personnel with strategies and information useful for increasing physical and emotional resiliency following lethal encounters. Dr. Van Hasselt’s presentation, “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Facts and Risk Factors” covered signs and symptoms of this problem in police officers exposed to critical incidents, and reviewed coping methods that have proven effective in preventing stress-related disorders in law enforcement professionals. He was also part of an expert panel on police trauma which included stress expert Donald Sheehan (FBI, ret.) and Judy Couwels, Program Coordinator of the Employee Assistance Program for the Broward Sheriff’s Office.