American Red Cross trains mental health professionals in disaster response

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luana Bossolo
Author(s):  
Taylor A. Klein ◽  
Kelley L. Davis ◽  
James L. Greenstone

Increased utilization of coordinated disaster response in the United States has resulted in the integration of interdisciplinary professions, which must involve mental health professionals to maximize potential success. The lack of interdisciplinary training has been cited as problematic. An anonymous survey identifying current training and scaling effectiveness was distributed. Seventy-two responses were recorded from various industries including fire rescue, law enforcement, emergency management, mental health professionals, physicians, and health professional students. As expected, very high percentages of these professionals had received response training. However, the average response often included “neutral” within the standard deviation of responses assessing training efficacy suggesting a possible lack of comfort and confidence. Most significantly, respondents were least comfortable working with mental health professionals, suggesting a need for considerable improvement in mental health professionals' involvement in interdisciplinary disaster response training and exercises.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document