Lesson 1 Flashcards
The study of Trauma followed by denial or forgetting led to?
the beginning of disaster and mental health
What are the 3 distinguished form of trauma in the 20th century that surfaced into the consciousness?
- Hysteria
- The study of the combat veterans from
the First World War through the Vietnam War. - Sexual and Domestic Abuse
How did Freud defined hysteria?
As women expressed their experiences of sexual violence, raped and incest, Freud deduced that the trauma led to double consciousness or dissociation, insisting the sexual nature of hysteria. He argued that it is not the result of a traumatic event but rather an inappropriate desire for sex that the ashamed patient repressed as the urge struggle for conscious awareness leading to hysterical symptoms.
Combat veterans experience, “Shell Shock”
As to no one was interested to study trauma, their psychological symptoms after the war were blamed to physical exposure on shelling.
American Psychiatric Association (APA) to legitimize their distress with a new diagnosis: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which was first included in the third edition of the APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-3), in 1980.
Experience of Women in 1970s
It was brought to light the cause of traumatic symptoms wasn’t only visible on the the veterans but also to those women in the civilian life experiencing abuse.
Herbert Page
One of the first to recognize and
study disaster survivors in the railway accidents. He observed symptoms such as emotionality, sleeplessness, heightened startle response, re-experiencing, and hypervigilance- are in fact the symptoms of PTSD.
1970s
The disaster mental health came into its own, as a result of a broad network of mental health practitioners responding to disasters.
1974
Disaster Relief Act has been passed.
Early 1990s
The American Red Cross established disaster mental health as a function not only to help disaster survivors but to support impacted staff and volunteers.
1995
Hundreds of counselors were deployed after the
Oklahoma City bombing and thousands of DMH workers responded to the attacks on September 11, 2001.
Disaster and Mental Health State at Present
DMH is practiced by some 5,000 licensed mental health volunteer working with the American Red Cross.
Professional organizations, including the National Association of Social Workers, the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association, have statements of
understanding with the American Red Cross.
The Disaster Distress Helpline provides mental health assistance to disaster survivors 24/7
via phone and texts.
University-based programs, such as the Institute for Disaster Mental Health at SUNY New Paltz, offer both academic programs and professional trainings.
The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP)
now requires that counselors, as part of their core curriculum, “study the effects of crisis, disasters, and
trauma on diverse individuals across the lifespan” and learn the “skills of crisis intervention, trauma informed, and community-based strategies, such as Psychological First Aid”
The role of the DMH Helper
DMH helpers do not provide any type of analytic therapy, prolonged exposure therapy, cognitive processing therapy, or eye movement desensitization.
Helpers approach disaster survivors with the attitude that they’re under extreme but understandable stress resulting from their recent experience.
The role of Counselors in DMH
They use trained to be calm and use their clinical skills to assist survivors in this most difficult time.
Counselors monitor the staff for stress, encourage them to take breaks and time off, and advocate for an environment that’s conducive to mental health.
Who provides Mental Health Response
Other Agencies Involved in Disaster Response
Spiritual Care in Disaster Response
Other Agencies Involved in Disaster Response
Office of Children and Family Services
Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance
Spiritual Care in Disaster Response
Spiritual care providers should refer a depressed or suicidal client to a mental health professional, who in turn should refer clients who complain that they have lost faith in God for spiritual.
List of sites where counselors might be deployed within their own community or in another state:
Disaster site
Disaster Recovery/Assistance Center
Family Service Center or
Family Assistance Center
Medical Point of Dispensing (POD)
Outreach team
Headquarters/emergency operations center
Shelter
School or hospital
Memorial service telephone call center
Role of DMH Staff
Refer clients to DMH workers if the client is highly distressed or agitated.
Signals a DMH worker for help during an interview.
Role of Disaster mental health practitioners
Disaster mental health practitioners “work the crowd,” making supportive contact with survivors, engaging in conversations with those who are waiting, providing brochures to adults, and giving toys, coloring books and crayons to the children.
Role of DMH workers
Maintain calm by lowering the arousal level through these simple actions, and through outreach that offers modest but cumulatively helpful stress relief.
DMH workers also provide assistance to stressed workers.
Clients
Clients were referred to as victims - victims of abuse or violence or disaster. However, victim connotes weakness, vulnerability, and powerlessness and does not do justice to clients’ strengths and their ability to bounce back from adversity.
Survivors, a word that connotes strength and resilience.
What do we do in DMH?
In disaster mental health, we typically do not “treat patients”, as we are not often making diagnoses. Rather we are assisting those impacted by extreme stress caused by disaster.
Considerable assistance that a DMH worker can offer
Check with the shelter managers to determine if there are residents or staff members who could use support.
Walk around the shelter or DRC and introduce yourself to residents/visitors and let them know you’re available if they need anything.
Check to see if people are generally comfortable decent lighting, food, and clean bathrooms.
Let people know that food is on the way, that toys are available for children, that the storm has passed, that the local sports team won the game.
Listen to their complaints.
Check in with response leaders, reporters outside the operation, or first responders coming in for a break to see how they’re doing and if they could use some DMH support.
Define Disaster
A disaster is “a natural or human-caused catastrophe that causes destruction, frequently including loss of life, with permanent changes to an environment and a community” (Halpern & Tramontin, 2007).
It occur at the collective, community-wide level
