About Dr. Billie Ratliff
Dr. Billie Ratliff is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Colorado, Clinical Assistant Professor of Social Work for the Department of Social Work at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS), teaching both in the BSW and MSW programs, certified Trauma Informed Care Instructor and mentor, and a Co-Founder of Synergy Behavioral Health Solutions LLC, a consulting company specializing in assisting organizations change their culture to a Trauma-Informed framework. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Social Work from Murray State University, Murray, Kentucky and a master’s degree in social work from Washington University, St. Louis. Dr. Ratliff has recently retired from a 43-year career of working in healthcare settings, primarily hospitals, and most recently held the Director, Behavioral Health position in UCHealth Southern Region. Dr. Ratliff’s clinical specialty is developmental trauma and trauma-informed care. Dr. Ratliff earned her Doctor of Behavioral Health (DBH) degree from Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies in 2023, where she developed and launched her business Synergy Behavioral Health Solutions LLC, in collaboration with her business partner and fellow DBH alumna, Dr. Diane E. Scott.
Dr. Ratliff’s culminating project, Sounding the Alarm: A Matter of Life and Death for Firefighters, results from a pilot partnership between the Rio Rancho Fire Rescue and Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies. It is a four-module online course series hosted on an online learning platform, developed to increase awareness among first responders, including firefighters, paramedics, and emergency responders, of the impacts of trauma on health and mental health for this population. Specific learning outcomes included an increased understanding of trauma and the connection between untreated trauma and poor health outcomes for first responders; an increased understanding of the increased risk of poor coping skills, suicidal ideation, and lethality for first responders; and increased adaptive coping mechanisms for addressing trauma through help-seeking behavior, goal setting, and confidence building in giving and receiving peer support. In creating an online curriculum utilizing evidence-based behavioral health education and treatment, Dr. Ratliff and her co-author Dr. Scott aimed to increase firefighters'/EMTs/paramedics' knowledge concerning suicide, developmental and event trauma, and self-care. Primary objectives were to teach first responders to change from the "suck it up" mentality to a trauma-informed mentality, identify and replace unhealthy trauma responses/symptoms early, and reach out for help to heal from events and developmental traumas.
Learn more about Dr. Ratliff and her culminating project by watching the videos below.
