Community-based randomized controlled trial of psychological first aid with crime victims

The first randomized controlled trial of psychological first aid (PFA) was conducted, using crime victims as participants. For study Aim 1, investigators tested whether paraprofessional victim advocates could be trained to deliver PFA to crime victims. For study Aim 2, investigators tested the effect of PFA delivery on victims' psychiatric (i.e., symptoms of PTSD, somatization, depression, anxiety, and substance use) and adaptive functioning outcomes.

Two law enforcement agencies served as study sites. A dynamic wait-listed design included a phase when advocates at both sites delivered usual services (US) to victims, a phase when one site was randomly selected to deliver PFA while the other delivered US, and a phase when both sites delivered PFA. Across all phases, 172 crime victims (mean age = 36.4 years; 81% female) were recruited, and a battery assessed their psychiatric symptoms and adaptive functioning at baseline and 1, 2, and 4 months postbaseline.

From the US to PFA phases, advocates' PFA adherence (i.e., their delivery of PFA components) increased significantly. PFA did not outperform US with regard to improvement on victims' individual psychiatric and adaptive functioning outcomes. However, on a composite global functioning outcome created for this trial, PFA yielded significantly greater improvement relative to US.

Paraprofessional victim advocates have the capacity to deliver PFA. Conclusions regarding the effectiveness of PFA for crime victims vary depending on the nature of the scored outcome variable (individual vs. global), highlighting the importance of careful outcome measurement considerations in future research on PFA. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).