Proceedings of the 6th Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Conference

George W. Doherty

Jan 2008 · Loving Healing Press

About this ebook

Events around the world continue to present challenges for first responders and mental health professionals. Natural and man-made disasters continue. Evidence mounts concerning potential events such as global warming and the effects this may have worldwide. Avian Flu remains a concern as do forms of biological terrorism and natural hazards such as tsunamis, floods, hurricanes and earthquakes. The 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka and Thailand continues to have a significant impact on that area of the world. Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continue to impact those countries, the Middle East and the United States. Preparing our communities and families not only for deployments and support of those deployed and their families, but also for the aftermath and return of our military and National Guard personnel into our communities is important for all.

What can we expect from all of these? How do communities and first responders handle these? What role does mental health play? How do first responders and mental health professionals plan together for responding to future events and learning from past ones. Using a strategic planning approach, how do we identity potential threats and identify target populations and groups? What resources are available for which identified threats? How do we do such planning, how often, and how do we exercise such plans prior to events? What can we learn from such events and how do we incorporate what we learn into future planning?

It is crucial that response, resilience, recovery and follow-up be included in our planning. Additional variables important in responding include cultural knowledge and sensitivity. We need to prepare to respond appropriately within a culture not our own, whether locally, nationally, or internationally.

November 8-10, 2007, the Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Institute held their Annual Disaster Mental Health Conference in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The theme of this conference was: "From Crisis To Recovery: Resilience and Strategic Planning for the Future."
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"Learning from the past and planning for the future"
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Ratings and reviews

While natural and man-made disasters continue to garner attention from international onlookers, the emergency and disaster management community continues to look for ways to better prepare and respond to these scenarios. The United States’ federally-mandated four-pronged approach – prevent, prepare, respond, and recover – allows for a comprehensive methodology when considering what actions should be taken before, during, and after a given event. Yet much of what is categorized as ‘emergency management’ by the general public is physical – stocking supplies, having adequate shelter, and clean-up, for example. A truly all-encompassing plan includes the psychological and sociological implications of disasters. Editor George W. Doherty presents the “Proceedings of the 6th Rocky Mountain Regional Disaster Mental Health Conference” to address these important aspects of emergency and disaster management. “Proceedings of the 6th Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Conference” contains the presented material from the November 2007 conference held in Cheyenne, Wyoming. In keeping with its theme ‘From Crisis to Recovery: Resilience and Strategic Planning for the Future’, subjects such as police suicides and traumatic stress in the workplace, psychological first aid for both responders and the communities they assist, ethical considerations, strategic planning and state-level implementation of behavioral health response, the importance of non-verbal communication and multicultural work, and special population needs are discussed throughout the text. As a graduate student in emergency and disaster management, I found the subject matter to be relevant, interesting, and applicable to the many facets of the field. While the text reflects no discernible spelling, grammatical, or punctuation errors, I found the format to be ‘uncomfortable’. The book’s size is larger than I would consider normal or typical and the font size is enormous. It seems as though most books, especially those utilized by the emergency management community, are smaller and easy to throw in a bag to read on the go. Although lightweight and in paperback format, my copy of the book quickly began showing wear and tear because of its cumbersome size. Editor George W. Doherty’s “Proceedings of the 6th Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Conference” is a fantastic resource for behavioral health related subjects in the emergency and disaster management field. A must have for any responder’s library!