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Learning From The Past and Planning For The Future
MENTAL HEALTH MOMENT April 2, 2004 "There are no favorable winds for those who have no direction." - Seneca
Short Subjects
LINKS Rocky Mountain Region
Disaster Mental Health Institute
CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS:
CRISES IN RURAL AMERICA
Crisis Interventions And
Critical Incident Stress Management:
Current Status and Future Directions
April 21-24, 2004
Casper, Wyoming
Registration: 1-800-442-2963 ext 2212
Society of Australasian
Social Psychologists 33rd Annual Meeting
April 15 - 18, 2004
Location: Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
27th National AACBT Conference
(Australian Association for
Cognitive and Behavior Therapy)
May 15 - 19, 2004
Location: Perth, Western Australia
AUSTRALIA
Society of Australasian Social Psychologists
33rd Annual Meeting
April 15 - 18, 2004
Location: Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Contact: SASP@auckland.ac.nz
Deadline for submissions: 1 February 2004WFPHA 10th International Congress on
Public Health: Sustaining Public Health
in a Changing World: Vision to Action
April 19-22, 2004
Location: Brighton, ENGLAND
Contact: Allen K. Jones, PhD
Secretary General World Federation of
Public Health Associations
Email: stacey.succop@apha.org3rd Annual Hawaii
International Conference on Social Sciences
June 16 - 19, 2004
Location: Honolulu Hawaii, USA
Contact: social@hicsocial.orgSociety for the Psychological Study of
Social Issues (SPSSI) Convention
June 25 - 27, 2004
Location: Washington, DC, USA
17th Congress of the International Association
of Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP)
August 2 - 6, 2004
Location: Xi'an, CHINA
Contact: Zheng Gang
Institute of Psychology
Chinese Academy of Sciences
100101 Beijing, China
Email: iaccp2004@psych.ac.cnSixth International Conference of
the Learning Sciences (ICLS 2004):
"Embracing Diversity in the Learning Sciences"
June 22 - 26, 2004
Location: Santa Monica, California, USA
International Society of Political Psychology
27th Annual Scientific Meeting
July, 15-18, 2004
Location: Lund, Sweden
62nd Annual Conference of the
International Council of Psychologists
August 3 - 6, 2004
Location: University of Jinan
Jinan, CHINA
Contact: Dr. Natividad Dayan
Scientific Chair
99 General Ave
GSIS Village, Project 8
Quezon City, Metro Manila
01108 PHILIPPINES Telephone: 632-724-5358
Email: bereps@pacific.net.phXXVIII International Congress of Psychology
August 8 - 13, 2004
Location: Beijing, CHINA
Contact: XiaoLan FU, Deputy Director
Committee for International Cooperation
Chinese Psychological Society
Institute of Psychology
Chinese Academy of Sciences
P.O. Box 1603
Beijing 100101, China
Telephome: +86-10-6202-2071
Fax: +86-10-6202-2070
22nd Nordic Congress of Psychology:
"Psychology in a World of Change and Diversity -
Challenges for our Profession"
August 18 -20, 2004
Location: Copenhagen, DENMARK
Contact: Roal Ulrichsen, Chair
NPK2004 Organizing Committee
Danish Psychological Association
Stokholmsgade 27, DK-2100
Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
Email: bh@vanhauen.dk
FEMA Partners With Historically Black CollegesFEMA is participating in a two-day workshop on emergency management and mitigation for the Mid-Atlantic Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and the local emergency managers from the surrounding communities. The goals of the workshop are to provide support to HBCUs and local communities. For the Full Story, Go To: http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=11607
Spring Flood Information From FEMA
http://www.fema.gov/storm/flood.shtm
The California Fires Coordination Group: A Report to the Secretary of Homeland Security
Beginning October 21, 2003, a series of wildfires swept through the wooded canyons and mountain communities of southern California. Scorching over 750,000 acres in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Ventura Counties, the California Wildfires of 2003 ranked among the largest disasters in the State’s history. The fires claimed 24 lives, caused over 200 injuries, and left over 3,000 families homeless. Entire communities were reduced to ashes and faced the seemingly overwhelming task of rebuilding. For the Complete Report, Go To: http://www.fema.gov/pdf/library/draft_cfcg_report_0204.pdf
FARM-EMERGENCY RESPONSE PROGRAM SEEKS INSTRUCTORS
Penn State Cooperative Extension is looking for people who have a strong knowledge of agriculture, as well as rescue and patient-care experience, to deliver a farm emergency response program to farmers, their families and their employees. The Farm Family Emergency Response Program (formerly First-on-the-Scene for Farm Families) is designed to help farmers make critical decisions when they discover an injury emergency on their farm. Read the full story at http://live.psu.edu/story/6205
Asian dust storms grow in frequency, wreaking havoc far from home – UN
In “a globalization of environmental problems” dust and sand storms in northeast Asia have grown vastly in frequency and intensity, leading to widespread loss of livestock and crops, disrupted communications, respiratory problems and deaths far from their source, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said. "We are worried about the creep of environmental problems – their disrespect of political boundaries – and the way they threaten to compound and disrupt the functioning of major natural systems," UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer told the 8th Special Session of the agency’s Governing Council and the Global Ministerial Environment Forum in Jeju, Republic of Korea. For the Full Story, Go To: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=10266&Cr=Dust&Cr1=Storm
Rising tide of rubbish and wastes key problem for small island states – UN agencies
From discarded beer cans turning pristine shores blue green to old sofas blocking lush creeks, the world’s small island states are facing another key problem – a rising tide of rubbish and wastes – and need urgent international aid to deal with it, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said today. As if rising sea levels, over-fishing, water shortages and inadequate sanitation service were not enough, these countries now see waste threatening not only public health but also their livelihoods, according to studies presented to the 8th Special Session of UNEP’s Governing Council and the Global Ministerial Environment Forum in Jeju, Republic of Korea. For the Full Story, Go To: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=10251&Cr=Small&Cr1=Island
UN agency warns oxygen-starved ‘dead zones’ in seas threaten marine stocks
Nearly 150 oxygen-starved “dead zones” in the world’s oceans and seas, linked to an excess of nutrients, mainly nitrogen, from synthetic agricultural fertilizers, vehicle and factory emissions and wastes, threaten the survival of marine animals and plants, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) says in a new report. UNEP’s first Global Environment Outlook (GEO) Year Book 2003 says, “The emergence of areas of artificially low oxygen levels can be closely correlated with the use of synthetic fertilizers in agriculture. Nitrogen is a main ingredient of these fertilizers.” For the Full Story, Go To: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=10246&Cr=Environment&Cr1=Marine
Forests are key to alleviating poverty and protecting environment, UN agency says Just ahead of a United Nations-backed meeting on forests, the world body's food agency underscored the role these natural habitats can play in alleviating poverty and protecting the environment. “Forestry needs to be fully integrated with other sectors in policy development, particularly agriculture,” said Hosny El-Lakany of the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organization. For the Full Story, Go To: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=9776&Cr=forests&Cr1=
Sudan: Annan warns of 'devastating impact' of fighting in Darfur region
Calling civilian casualties and human rights violations unacceptable, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was "very disturbed" by the continuing conflict in the Darfur region of western Sudan. For the Full Story, Go To: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=10281&Cr=sudan&Cr1=
Advance party of UN peacekeepers arrive in Côte d'Ivoire
An advance party of 30 military officers and five United Nations civilian police officers arrived in Côte d'Ivoire from neighbouring Ghana, where they were in training for the full peacekeeping mission that is scheduled to be launched on 4 April. The full mission, the UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire, (UNOCI), will replace the small UN mission, MUNUCI, currently in place, along with a force from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which will be folded into UNOCI. For the Full Story, Go To: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=10285&Cr=ivoire&Cr1=
Upcoming elections must be safe and free, Annan tells Afghanistan conference
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan declared to the opening of an international conference on Afghanistan that this year's presidential and parliamentary elections will only advance national reconciliation if political parties and candidates can campaign openly and polling can take place safely. In a message delivered by Lakhdar Brahimi, his Special Adviser and former envoy for Afghanistan, the Secretary-General said "the magnitude of the election task is enormous," but added that a successful election held the promise of a fully representative government - "a decisive step in the democratic transition." For the Full Story, Go To: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=10283&Cr=afghanistan&Cr1=
Uzbekistan: Annan denounces series of bombings and other violent attacks
Saying crimes against civilians can never be justified, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed his dismay at the series of terrorist bombings and other violent attacks in Uzbekistan in the past two days. A statement released by his spokesperson at UN Headquarters in New York said Mr. Annan "condemns those criminal acts in the strongest terms. "Targeting of civilians is a crime which cannot be justified by any cause," the statement said. More than 20 people are reported to have been killed and another 50 people injured, mainly civilians, following bombings and gun battles in the Uzbek capital Tashkent and the provincial city of Bukhara.
Anxiety Symptoms and Treating Depression
Over the past 10-15 years, the pharmacologic treatment of depression has been greatly advanced, with the introduction of many new medications that have achieved much wider use. However, a variety of problems continue to exist. Many patients do not respond to first-choice treatments, which are usually selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and there are no clear guidelines as to what to do next for such patients. Further, substantial portions of the patients who do benefit from the SSRIs do not achieve full remission, and here also guidelines are lacking as to what to do next. Finally, many depressed patients manifest substantial anxiety symptoms as well; here again, guidelines are lacking as to how these anxiety features should influence treatment selection. For the Article, Go To: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/471885?mpid=26633
MEDSCAPE DEPRESSION RESOURCE CENTER
According to the World Health Organization, major depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide among persons aged 5 years and older. It is the most common and widespread of all psychiatric disorders, and it takes a significant toll on individuals, families, and society. Depression also negatively affects the economy through diminished productivity and use of healthcare resources. Medscape's editors have collected the latest medical news and information on effective diagnostic tools and clinical interventions that can treat depression and positively affect the quality of life for people who suffer from depressive disorders. For More Information, Go To: http://www.medscape.com/pages/editorial/resourcecenters/public/depression/rc-depression.ov
THE MEDICAL MINUTE: ALLERGIES MORE THAN SNIFFLES AND SNEEZES
The grass is growing, flowers are blooming, birds are singing... and noses are sneezing. It's spring again and with spring comes the return of springtime allergies. According to the latest edition of the Medical Minute, a service of Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, allergic problems are more than just a seasonal nuisance. Perhaps a quarter of all Americans are affected, resulting in 3.8 billion missed days of work and school per year at a cost of $4.5 billion annually. Allergies and asthma are closely related diseases. There are an estimated 5,000 deaths attributed to allergies each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Allergies may be common, but there is effective treatment for just about everyone. Read the full story at http://live.psu.edu/story/6230
CRISES IN RURAL AMERICA
Crisis Interventions And Critical Incident Stress Management:
Current Status and Future DirectionsApril 21-24, 2004
Casper College Campus
Casper, WY24.5 Contact Hours + POST
Conference Web Page is located at:
https://www.angelfire.com/biz/odochartaigh/rural-conference.htmlList of Presenters and Presentations is located at:
https://www.angelfire.com/biz/odochartaigh/rural-presenters.htmlConference will take place on campus of Casper College
TO REGISTER,
CALL: 1-800-442-2963 Ext 2212 or 307-268-2212
Fax: 307-268-2224
Early Bird Fee - Prior to April 9, 2004: $175; Student: $90; One Day: $75
Late Fee or Onsite: $200; Student: $110; One Day: $90HOTEL: Holiday Inn,
$61/night
Reserve by April 6, 2004
Mention Conference name or Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Institute
CALL: 1-877-576-8636 or 307-235-2531
Fax: 307-473-3110
CLINICAL REACTIONS OF DISASTER AND CRITICAL INCIDENT VICTIMS AND RESPONDERS
When intervening in any emergency, crisis or critical incident situation, psychological services attempt to facilitate the adaptation process of disaster victims by using:
• A psychological-educative approach
• Emphasizing in all messages that emotional reactions are normal
There are three phases of psychological interventions following a disaster or critical incident:
1. IMMEDIATE ACTION - This includes interventions before, during and immediately following the event. Some examples include:• Interventions at the disaster site;
• Contact with the clients (home visit if necessary);
• Support to people under stress (stress relief);
• Individual support;
• Setting up of a telephone hotline;
• Participatating in information sessions organized by the municipality;
• Promoting activities where people can discuss the event;
• Preparation of a brochure on normalizing reactions;
• Public notification of the availability of a team from the local • mental health and private practitioner community.
2. TRANSITIONAL MEASURES - These are interventions which take place when people begin to return to their daily lives. Some examples include:
• Support to people under stress;
• Information activities, brochures for different age groups;
• Conferences, workshops, courses;
• Information sessions;
• Activities to promote discussion about the event.
3. PROGRAMS TO ASSIST IN RETURNING TO A NORMAL LIFE - These interventions are those which continue beyond the Transitional Measures stage due to ongoing needs in the community. Some examples include:
• Follow-up home visits;• Thematic talks to meet identified needs;
• Individual or group consultations;
• Self-help groups;
• Crisis intervention.
There are three client groups that are affected by any incident:
Primary Client GroupPeople who experienced the event directly. They include the survivors and the people who witnessed the disaster or tragedy.
Secondary Client Group
People who lost a loved one in the disaster or tragedy. They include families in mourning and anyone emotionally close to an immediate victim and those who are affected by the traumatic event.
Tertiary Client Group
The operational staff, the different coordinators and leaders, the people providing psychosocial support and the public.
A major disaster may affect thousands of people from various age groups. Each age group has predominant characteristics. Whenever events occur in a person's life that threaten his or her biological, physical, or social well-being, a certain degree of disequilibrium results. People whose well-being is threatened react with anxiety (Rappoport, 1962). If there is a particularly large number of unpleasant or painful stimuli, the person needs a great capacity for adaptation (Cornell, 1989). In the mental health literature, the stress following a disaster or other tragedy is described as a precise set of symptoms that are manifested following an extraordinary traumatic event (Toubiana, 1988; Mangelsdorff, 1985; Butcher & Hatcher, 1988).
CHILDREN
Children's perceptions of a disaster or critical incident seem to be determined by their parents' reactions. Children of preschool age believe that their parents can protect them from all danger. They believe they cannot survive without them. Children of this age fear being injured, lost, or abandoned. This fear increases when they find themselves alone or among strangers.
Adults should be aware that the fertile imagination of preschool children makes them more fearful. Preschool children affected by disasters or critical incidents experience three levels of anxiety:
1. Contagious Anxiety - This type of anxiety is transmitted by adults. It can be dealt with easily in difficult circumstances in a child who is not normally anxious by placing the child in calming surroundings.2. True or Objective Anxiety - This is related to the capacity of the child to understand the danger that threatens him or her, and the child's tendency to create fantasies based on concrete events. The child is really afraid, because he or she does not know the causes and dangers felt to be threatening. It is useless to try to convince a child that thunder and lightening present no danger if the child does not understand their causes.
One can act on the objective fears of children this age by taking into account their degree of maturity and type of imagination. Adults should help them live through the event and conquer their fears in order to prevent the fears from persisting into adulthood.
3. Profound Anxiety - Different from fear, this involves separation anxiety. The child fears losing those close to him or her. Everything seems dangerous. Fear is omnipresent.
In general, young children express themselves little verbally. It is their behavior that reveals their anxiety and fear.
AGES 6-12
In all cases, the attitude of the family and the environment will have a great influence on the degree of anxiety of the child and on the mechanisms the child will use in the short and long term to cope with stressful situations or events.
The reaction may be immediate or delayed, brief or prolonged, intense or minimal. The child reacts with his or her present personality, at a given level of biological and emotional development. The nature and intensity of the reaction will be determined by the child's temperament as well as past experiences. Faced with the same stressful situation, two children may react in entirely different ways.
The reactions indicate the work of adaptation the child is doing to assimilate, cope with, and "accept" the painful situation.
The reactions most often expressed will translate in various ways the child's anxiety and his or her defenses against it, and will vary with the age of the child: fear, fright, sleep disturbance, nightmares, loss of appetite, aggressiveness, anger, refusal to go to school, behavioral problems, lack of interest in school, inability to concentrate in school or at play. Sometimes the difficulties only occur at school, or they only occur at home, with the child functioning adequately in the school environment.
An anxious child needs security and love above all. The role of the adult consists of helping the child psychologically and trying to understand him or her. Children can be spared much anxiety if we try to imagine their reaction to the event. Seeing through the child's eyes helps the adult to prepare the child emotionally to face events calmly and confidently as they occur.
Reactions can be prevented or lessened by clarifying the situation through open communication about the traumatic event or situation by those close to the child.
AGES 12-17
At this age, the motor skills of young people are often equal to those of adults. It is important for adolescents not to exceed their abilities and to realize that other aspects of their personalities are not as advanced as their physical development. The mental maturity of adolescents has no direct relation to their physical growth. Adults should not let themselves be influenced by appearances and expect an adolescent to have an adult mentality.
Adolescents have a great need to appear competent to the world around them. They struggle to gain independence from their families and are divided between a desire for increased responsibilities and a wish to return to the dependent role of childhood.
At the end of the latency period, young people have generally been able to find a coherent self-definition. Beyond the family and the school, peer groups have a favored place in their concerns and provide them with various means for validating themselves, which they absolutely must do.
A disaster or critical incident can have many repercussions on adolescents, depending on its impact on family, friends, and the environment. They show physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral reactions.
Studies have shown that the difficulties experienced by adolescents after a disaster are boredom and loneliness resulting from isolation from their peers because of the disturbance of their activities and the rehousing of their families.
Finally, after a disaster or critical incident, an adolescent may suddenly have to assume an adult role and cope with the need to become the head of the family and provide financial and emotional support to the other members of the family. The adolescent's way of envisioning his or her responsibilities obviously depends on a variety of factors, such as cultural background, age, religious views, education, personal equilibrium, and conception of life.
ELDERLY PEOPLE
Elderly people represent their families' memories, their special link with culture and religion. They are autonomous members of the community who are able to define their own needs and ask for the services needed to meet them.
Most elderly people show strength and courage in disasters and critical incidents. Their life experience has enabled them to acquire the ability to recover.
For elderly people, the reactions shown may be a way of expressing their worry about the future and the loss of their physical health, role in the family, social contacts, and financial security.
With age, we observe greater vulnerability in persons who are alone (unmarried, widows and widowers, divorced) as well as extreme sensitivity to emotional losses and socioeconomic and cultural changes.
Without sufficient validation and lacking emotional links with other generations in the community, elderly people become vulnerable to the whole range of physical, psychological and social tensions.
RESPONDERS
Studies have shown that psychological effects are universally present to some degree in responders involved in a disaster or critical incident situation. Teams of responders on the spot in a disaster or critical incident or after one have psychological reactions that are in every way similar to those of the victims. Several researchers in this area make no distinction between the two groups. Their reactions vary with the magnitude of the event and the number of casualties. It is also important to consider that, in addition to their work with the victims, there are factors of occupational stress: the time factor, overload of responsibilities, physical demands, mental demands, emotional demands, the workplace, environmental factors, limited resources, and the high expectations on the part of the public and the responders themselves. Generally responders function well in spite of the responsibilities, dangers, and stress factors inherent in their work, but sometimes it happens that the intense stress of the event overcomes the defenses they have previously used.
Verbalization sessions after a disaster or critical incident, commonly called ventilation, antistress, psychological recovery, or debriefing sessions, are needed immediately after the event, because the greater the interval between the event and the session, the more chance there is that the responders will develop delayed or lasting reactions.
It is preferable that the professional leading the sessions be someone from outside whose competence is recognized, given the emotionally charged nature of the sessions.
Verbalization sessions on the event should be a service offered to all responders to a disaster or critical incident by their employer.
Whatever the age groups, the psychosocial intervention and activites seek to restore and increase feelings of security, trust and competence, also to promote self-esteem, autonomy self-affirmation and assimilation of the event.
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References and Bibliography Butcher, J.N. and Hatcher, C. (1988). The neglected entity in air disaster planning - Psychological Services. American Psychologist 43(9): 724-729.
Caplan, G. (1964). Principles of Preventive Psychiatry New York. Basic Books Inc.
Cornell, W. Le stress apres un desaster (Stress after a disaster). (January/March 1989). Revue de la protection civile Canada. pp 24-25.
Cuica, R., Dounie, C.S., and Morris, M. (1977). When a disaster happens: How do you meet the emotional needs? American Journal of Nursing 77 (3).
Mitchell, J. and Bray, G. (1990). Emergency Services Stress. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Prentice Hall. 183 pages.
Rappoport, L. (1962). The state of crisis: Some theoretical considerations. Social Service Revue 36, 211-217.
Titchner, J. (October 22-24 1982). Psychological Response to Disaster and Trauma. Expose presente au 3e colloque national sur les facteurs psychosociaux en medecine d'urgence.
Toubiana, Y.H. and Milgram, N.A. (April 1988). Crisis intervention in a school community disaster: Principles and practices. Journal of Community Psychology.
Toubiana, Y.H. (1986). A therapeutic community in a forward Army Field Hospital: Treatment, education, and expectancy in combat stress reaction. In N.A. Milgram (ed.) Stress and Coping in Time of War: Generalizations from the Israeli Experience. Brunner/Mazel.
Mangelsdorff, A.D. (1985). Lessons learned and forgotten: The need for prevention and mental health interventions in disaster preparedness. Journal of Community Psychology.
To search for books on disasters and disaster mental
health topics, leaders, leadership, orgainizations,
crisis intervention, leaders and crises, and related
topics and purchase them online, go to the following url:
https://www.angelfire.com/biz/odochartaigh/searchbooks.html
RECOMMENDED READING
Critical Incident Stress And Trauma In The Workplace: Recognition... Response... Recovery
by Gerald W., Ph.D. Lewis
Book Description
This text was developed as a manual for those employed in the emergency services ESP, those who deal with victims of trauma in the workplace, work in school systems or acute psychiatric settings, provide assistance to ESP, or who are employed in other settings where persons may experience trauma. The book can also be used by mental health workers as they conduct workshops or provide debriefings where trauma has occured.
Additional Readings at:
Also try looking here for September 11, 2001: A Simple Account for Children.
Videos on Terrorism
Other videos about terrorism
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Contact your local Mental Health Center or
check the yellow pages for counselors, psychologists,
therapists, and other Mental health Professionals in
your area for further information.
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Copyrighted and published by the Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Institute. No part of this document may be reproduced without written consent.The Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Newsletter is published online weekly by:
Rocky Mountain Region
Disaster Mental Health Institute, Inc.
Box 786
Laramie, WY 82073-0786
Newsletter Online: https://www.angelfire.com/biz3/news
Institute Home Page: https://www.angelfire.com/biz/odoc/rocky.html
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