This article is subtitled “Mental and Social Aspects of Health of Populations Exposed to Extreme Stressors.” It is an eight page article that “summarizes the present position of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Dependence on assisting populations exposed to extreme stressors, such as refugees, internally displaced persons, disaster survivors and terrorism-, war- or genocide-exposed populations.”
This short article covers a number of tips to assist mental health workers with psychological first aid. While not terribly long, the article is concise and contains valuable advice for disaster mental health responders.
Anne Yarowsky, CSW, describes experiences working in the Mt. Sinai Hospital World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Mental Health Intervention Program, a screening and treatment program for the rescue and recovery workers at Ground Zero.
The goal of this short article is to assist local public health officials in promoting emotional resilience in their own towns or cities and to plan for the needs of specialized populations. It serves a brief guidance to 1) introduce the topic of emotional resilience; 2) frame the issues; and 3) give some “quick tips” on how public health can begin the process and include disaster behavioral health elements into local planning initiatives.
This brief article summarizes the long-term consequences of disasters and mass traumas.
This 3-page fact sheet published by the APA is designed to support fostering resilience in response to terrorism among mental health workers.
This brief article published on APA Online describes the developing renaissance for humanistic psychology.
This 19-page document outlines considerations regarding liability for professional and volunteer mental health practitioners working with individuals following disasters or acts of terrorism.
This is a 13-page fact sheet about mental health intervention for disasters from the National Center for PTSD.
This 5-page article summarizes the current U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations on screening for suicide risk and the supporting scientific evidence, and it updates the 1996 recommendations contained in the Guide to Clinical Preventive Services,Second Edition: Periodic Updates.
This 4-page article published by APA Online offers pointers for tapping into one’s own resilience to practitioners of mental health, as we are better able to help others when we also help ourselves.
This 5-page document from the National Association of Social Workers explains the legal and ethical issues of social workers and their ability to aid those affected by disaster. The states the article focuses on include Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.
Psychiatric Services provides this 4-page document with information about the importance of using psychiatrists to serve disaster victims. The article cites three scenarios where this type of collaboration has been useful.
This 123-page document is the result of a workshop on mental health and mass violence specifically interested in evidence-based early psychological intervention for victims/survivors of mass violence.
This 3-page article from APA online discusses how psychological science can inform policy on issues pertaining to the prediction, prevention, preparation and mitigation of the effects of, and recovery from, disasters like hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
This 19-page guide for mental health professionals wishing to help people recover, heal, and integrate after experiencing trauma or a disaster was prepared by an experienced Ph.D.
This 13-page fact sheet from the National Center for PTSD provides information on mental health intervention for disasters.
This brief document from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress provides disaster mental health responders with guidelines for notifying families of dead or missing loved ones.
This 3-page document discusses psychosocial resources in the aftermath of natural and human-caused disasters and reviews the empirical literature with implications for intervention following such disasters.
This 89-page document from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is a report of the expert panel workshop on psychological responses to hazardous substances.
This brief fact sheet for mental health care responders is from the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and discusses the psychosocial treatment of disaster and related mental health problems.
This 13-page fact sheet from the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder provides mental health care responders with information for mental health intervention after a disaster.
This brief document provides definitions and uses for reflective listening when working as a disaster responder.
This 18-page article from Counselling Psychology Quarterly offers information on the self-confrontation method, including theory, research, and practical utility. In recent years, the Self Confrontation Method has garnered significant attention as both a method of assessment and change in counseling. In this paper, the authors provide a review of the utility of the Self Confrontation Method as a practical tool for counselors. Toward this end, the conceptual and empirical foundations of the Self Confrontation Method are first examined followed by a focus on its practical application to counseling. Consistent with narrative and constructivist approaches to counseling, the Self Confrontation Method represents a viable procedure for contextualizing client problems, assessing the unique organization of client self-schemas and emotional patterning, and facilitating progressive client change and development.
This brief fact sheet from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress provides basic information on psychological first aid and how disaster responders can best support the well-being in disaster victims.
This article covers what a critical incident is and different myths associated with it. Be sure to read it if you are unsure of what that term means.
This valuable article talks about the effects one’s gender has on his or her mental health. It goes into gender theories, women’s issues, men’s issues, and then mental health.
This paper covers what training can do to one’s stress response to a traumatic event. Its basic premise is that training allows one to handle more stress without the parasympathetic nervous system springing into action.
This paper covers what training can do to one’s stress response to a traumatic event. Its basic premise is that training allows one to handle more stress without the parasympathetic nervous system springing into action.
This is a CDC document aimed at addressing the mental health of responders. It addresses key principles, issues, and questions. Its bullet-point format provides an extensive list that would help just about anyone.
This guide looks to expound on the fact that a firefighter’s mental health is just as essential to being able to perform one’s job as his or her physical health. It then addresses how to decide whether one needs some assistant or not.
A three-page paper that covers the different incidents that could likely traumatize responders, this provides situations for many to be wary of.
This article covers a Cornell document that examined firefighters after September 11th. It finds that they were able to create very coordinated teams, but that the event left a number of lingering problems with the men and women.
An extensive report on the “work conditions and emotional health among NYC firefighters and fire offices, this paper examines the effects of working in such a high-intensity, highly emotional setting.
This fact sheet addresses two things. It first talks about how one should work with survivors of traumatic events, and then speaks to how those helpers can deal with the trauma him or herself.
This flyer from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers tips for emergency and disaster response workers in recognizing possible alcohol and substance abuse indicators in those they serve.
The Disaster Response Network (DRN) of the American Psychological Association (APA) is the mechanism through which volunteer psychologists respond to local and national disasters and other traumatic events. This 10-page document provides their guidelines.
This 13-page article from the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) offers a review of social work research on disasters, their impact, management, and recovery stages.
This 9-page article outlines methods for maximizing the beneficial effects of a health professional disaster relief team.
This 4-page article published by APA Online offers pointers for tapping into one’s own resilience to practitioners of mental health, as we are better able to help others when we also help ourselves.
This 3-page document found in the International Journal of Emergency Mental Health emphasizes the importance of Pastoral Crisis Intervention and how the pastoral community can be effectively used in a time of crisis.
This 3-page document discusses psychosocial resources in the aftermath of natural and human-caused disasters and reviews the empirical literature with implications for intervention following such disasters.
This 89-page document from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is a report of the expert panel workshop on psychological responses to hazardous substances.
This brief fact sheet for mental health care responders is from the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and discusses the psychosocial treatment of disaster and related mental health problems.
This 13-page fact sheet from the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder provides mental health care responders with information for mental health intervention after a disaster.
This brief document provides definitions and uses for reflective listening when working as a disaster responder.
This 18-page article from Counselling Psychology Quarterly offers information on the self-confrontation method, including theory, research, and practical utility. In recent years, the Self Confrontation Method has garnered significant attention as both a method of assessment and change in counseling. In this paper, the authors provide a review of the utility of the Self Confrontation Method as a practical tool for counselors. Toward this end, the conceptual and empirical foundations of the Self Confrontation Method are first examined followed by a focus on its practical application to counseling. Consistent with narrative and constructivist approaches to counseling, the Self Confrontation Method represents a viable procedure for contextualizing client problems, assessing the unique organization of client self-schemas and emotional patterning, and facilitating progressive client change and development.
This brief fact sheet from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress provides basic information on psychological first aid and how disaster responders can best support the well-being in disaster victims.
This 4-page fact sheet from the CDC offers information for disaster mental health responders from signs an individual requires a referral to self-care tips.
This 7-page document from the CDC offers health recommendations for relief workers responding to a disaster.
This 40-page working document from the Emotional and Spiritual Care Committee of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster offers an introduction on basic concepts of emotional and spiritual care.
This 50-page document from the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism provides entire communities, on-site responders, government officials, the medical community, schools, non-profits, clergy, and the media with information for preparation for and response to disasters.
This 20-page article offers lessons learned from disaster response volunteers from the Swissair Flight 111 incident. This qualitative research study provides insight into the specific experiences, trauma, and needs of disaster volunteers as an understudied and marginalized sector of response and recovery personnel. Based on a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews, the authors present the tasks, exposures, impacts, and search for
meaning of the Swissair Flight 111 disaster volunteers who were exposed to human remains during response and recovery efforts. The article is structured to amplify the voices of volunteers to reveal the specificity of disaster fieldwork and resultant multilevel impacts critical to understanding and responding to contemporary disasters. The article concludes with a discussion of the need for clinical and operational policies and protocols that acknowledge the risk and impact of volunteer exposure to human remains and serve to protect the well-being of future volunteer disaster response and recovery workers.
This brief fact sheet from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers tips for disaster response workers in identifying substance abuse in disaster victims in order to better aid them in disaster recovery.
This paper covers what training can do to one’s stress response to a traumatic event. Its basic premise is that training allows one to handle more stress without the parasympathetic nervous system springing into action.
This document contains a Community Crisis Response Team Training Manual, which was written as a training guide for individuals and communities interested in responding to crisis.
This is a 104-page guidebook to psychosocial intervention, designed for mental health responders aiding in helping others cope with disasters.
This 180-page Disaster Mental Health Response Handbook is an educational resource for mental health professionals involved in disaster management.
This 56-page Disaster Psychiatry Handbook is from the American Psychiatric Association’s Committee on Psychiatric Dimension of Disaster.
This 155-page handbook for mental health professionals serves as a guidebook for disaster response and recovery.
This is a 12-page document designed to inform individuals about the Emergency Management Institute’s Independent Study Program. The Emergency Management Institute (EMI) serves as the national focal point for the development and delivery of emergency management training. This training enhances the capabilities of the Federal, state, and local government, volunteer organizations, and the private sector to minimize the impact of disasters on the American public. EMI curricula, including the Independent Study Program (ISP) courses, are structured to meet the needs of this diverse audience with an emphasis on how the various elements work together in emergencies to save lives and protect property. The Independent Study Program (ISP) is a distance learning program which offers training, free of charge, to the nation’s emergency management network and general public. It serves as both and alternative means to deliver valuable training to the professional and volunteer emergency management community, and an opportunity to improve public awareness and promote disaster preparedness nationally.
This 172-page training manual on mental health response to terrorism was prepared by the Community Resilience Project of Northern Virginia.
This 226-page Iraq War Clinician Guide was prepared by the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
This 80-page document from FEMA is a self-study guide introduction to the National Incident Management System.
This 189-page field guide from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and the National Center for PTSD provides information on delivering psychological first aid in communities affected by trauma or disaster.
International trauma training refers to the training initiatives by professionals with expertise in trauma mental health who travel from one country to another in the effort to teach and train local persons to respond better to trauma-related problems. This 9-page documentn from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies addresses four specific areas:
- The values underlying international trauma training
- Contextual challenges in post-conflict societies
- Core curricular elements
- Monitoring and evaluation of training.
These guidelines are intended especially for professionals who are engaged in international trauma training, such as: trainers; recipients; designers; sponsors; funders; monitors; and evaluators.
