# Somatic Mindfulness Training for a Healthy Workforce

> **NIH NIH P20** · MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY - BOZEMAN · 2020 · $158,610

## Abstract

This proposal requests support to expand ongoing research of occupational-based secondary trauma (ST) 
among victim service providers in Montana. ST is a significant problem because it impacts providers' 
mental and physical health, exacerbates staff turnover and shortages in providers, and decreases the 
efficacy of service provision for victims (1-3). Addressing ST is challenging. Determining even the 
prevalence of ST is not easy given correlates like historical trauma, adverse childhood experiences, and 
ongoing adversities, which make it difficult to disaggregate predictors, proximal symptoms, and distal 
outcomes. Our work (4-5), along with gaps in the literature (6-9), suggests that sound epidemiological data 
are needed, and that longitudinal research and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are nonexistent. In 
previous phases of our study, we (a) collected qualitative data from a statewide victim needs assessment 
(n=158); (b) coauthored, with our community advisory boards (CABs), two “toolkits” that were disseminated 
and positively evaluated at four training retreats for providers in Blackfeet Nation and Bozeman (n=178, 
p<.01); and (c) collected epidemiological data on ST and health from local providers (nested within victim 
service organizations) and from comparisons (n=1190). Lastly, (d) we are nearly finished with a pilot RCT 
(treatment n=41 and control=32) that is testing feasibility and acceptability of a psychosocial intervention 
focused on the body’s neurophysiological response to ST and related mindfulness practices using four 
waves of longitudinal data collection. The next step, the objective of the proposed research (Year 1), 
involves analyzing the quantitative data we have collected to document ST as an occupational hazard and 
public health concern and then disseminating those results to raise local, state, and national awareness 
about ST and its health consequences (Aim 1). We will integrate the findings to improve the efficacy of our 
intervention and pilot a redesign intended for remote implementation (Aim 2) to further our goal of applying 
for external RPG funding (Aim 3). We hypothesize that ST is related to health risks and that these can be 
mitigated. If our hypotheses are supported, this research will challenge occupational and public health 
paradigms by increasing awareness, normalization, and knowledge of ST. The project will be able to offer a 
somatic mindfulness intervention needed to help create a healthy workforce. The entire intervention (needs 
assessment, toolkit, trainings, evaluation, and outcome study) should prove to be practical, sustainable, 
and relatively easy to adapt in other communities.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10233835
- **Project number:** 5P20GM104417-07
- **Recipient organization:** MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY - BOZEMAN
- **Principal Investigator:** Kelly Knight
- **Activity code:** P20 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $158,610
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-01 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10233835

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10233835, Somatic Mindfulness Training for a Healthy Workforce (5P20GM104417-07). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-29 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10233835. Licensed CC0.

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