Mental Health and Preparedness: Are We Ready?

Presenter

Randal Beaton, PhD, EMT, Research Professor, Psychosocial & Community Health

Learn how frontline public health practitioners can help respond to the mental health needs of the community following a disaster. Knowing what to plan for and what types of adaptive behaviors follow disasters is essential. Promoting community resilience and mitigating maladaptive behavior are the goals of such a plan.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe adaptive and maladaptive behavioral health outcomes of survivors in the aftermath of a disaster
2. List the elements of an integrated mental health disaster plan designed to promote community resilience
3. Identify the components of an integrated mental health disaster plan designed to mitigate maladaptive behavioral health outcomes in survivors

Appropriate Audience

Public health leaders and "worker bees," emergency health care providers

Randal D. Beaton, PhD, EMT, Research Professor at the University of Washington School of Nursing is on the faculty of the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice. He is both a clinical psychologist and a volunteer EMT. He has headed NIOSH- and FEMA-funded programs to examine the causes and effects of stress in firefighters and other emergency responders.

His recent research has focused on the psychosocial aspects of terrorism, especially among first responders, including:

• Evaluation for the DoD Domestic Preparedness Training for first responders
• Evaluation of the 2002 Strategic National Stockpile drill—including volunteer patient and worker outcomes
• Program Evaluator and Core Faculty with the HRSA-funded Bioterrorism Curriculum Enhancement project
• Published review article on psychosocial factors in chemical and biological terrorism

Session Archive

Play the recorded presentation "Mental Health and Preparedness: Are We Ready?" (1 hour, 5 minutes)

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PowerPoint® Slides

• Slide set 1 [530 KB PPT file]
• Slide set 2 [689 KB PPT file]
• Slide set 3 [3.3 MB PPT file]

Supplemental Materials

• Psychological Aspects of Terrorism: Selected References and Websites compiled by Dr. Randal Beaton, June 2004 [136 KB PDF file - 12 pages]
• Glossary of Mental Health Terms, from National Institute of Mental Health (2002) [84 KB PDF file - 7 pages]
• Mental Health and Mass Violence: Evidence-Based Early Psychological Intervention for Victims/Survivors of Mass Violence. A Workshop to Reach Consensus on Best Practices, October 2001 [1.7 MB PDF file - 123 pages]
• Traumatic Incident Stress: Information For Emergency Response Workers from NIOSH