An Introduction to Moral Injury

There has been increasing interest in moral injury in frontline occupations in recent years — among first responders, healthcare and social workers, teachers and a variety of community service occupations. This interest is likely to surge when "moral problems" are added to the DSM-5 in September.

This presentation is given by Dean Yates, a Positive Solutions trainer and author of Line in the Sand, a memoir published in 2023 that has been acclaimed by moral injury and trauma experts around the world. Dean’s presentation is informed by his own suffering of moral injury, following the deaths of two of his staff in a U.S. helicopter attack in Baghdad in 2007 when he was bureau chief for the international news agency Reuters.

Presentation outline

Defining moral injury, from Ancient Greece to Covid 19
Who is vulnerable?
Similarities and differences with PTSD
What will the addition of “moral problems” to the DSM-5 mean in practice?
Moral injury and the challenge for workplaces
Moral injury prevention and healing
What worked for Dean

Dean's recent online presentations have won rave reviews from health officials, WHS officers, psychiatrists, counsellors, social workers, clinical supervisors, and people with lived experience in Tasmania and the mainland.

Selection of participant feedback:

“Dean’s presentation is the most dynamic and relevant on moral injury I have seen. He has clearly taken his lived experience as a journalist in warzones and translated this into an understanding of moral injury that should be required for all.”

“Dean's presentation was extremely easy to follow, and his grasp of moral injury is significant. He answered a number of long-held questions no one else has been willing to answer for me - or didn't know how to.”

“I found your presentation not just educational, but I deeply appreciated the personal aspects of your story which helped me to see a different angle to moral injury.”