Initial Behavioral Health Response

2012 ◽  
pp. 289-300
Author(s):  
Julie Framingham
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Health ◽  
Health Response

Public disaster mental/behavioral health communication: Intervention across disaster phases

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 283 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Brian Houston, PhD
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Behavioral Health ◽  
Behavioral Outcomes ◽  
Communication Intervention ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Disaster Communication ◽  
Health Response ◽  
Communication Interventions

Background: Disasters have been found to significantly impact mental and behavioral health.1 A public health response to disaster seeks to ameliorate this impact by identifying mental/behavioral health effects resulting from an event and by promoting healthy disaster-related outcomes. Disaster communication interventions are effective tools that disaster managers can use to achieve these outcomes.Objectives: Based on a review of the literature, the objectives of this article are to describe disaster communication intervention activities and corresponding outcomes and to place those activities in a multiphase disaster communication framework.Results: The Disaster Communication Intervention Framework (DCIF) is proposed. Outcomes targeted by DCIF include improving individual and community preparedness and resilience; decreasing disaster-related distress; promoting wellness, coping, recovery, and resilience; helping a community make sense of what happened during and after a disaster; and rebuilding the community. Strategies for achieving these outcomes are described.Conclusions: DCIF provides a multiphase framework of public disaster mental/behavioral health communication intervention that can be used by disaster managers to improve mental and behavioral outcomes following a disaster.

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