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In recent years, devastating events, such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, tsunami, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, have wreaked havoc on millions of lives. The mental health, preparation and education of first responders and their families to events like these was the focus of the Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Institute's 6th annual Disaster Mental Health Conference. The major papers and presentations from the conference are now available to first responders, therapists, and researchers everywhere in a new book, edited by Institute President George W. Doherty, "Proceedings of the 6th Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Conference."
Proceedings of the 6th Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Conference
Edited by George W. Doherty, MS, LPC
Rocky Mountain DMH Institute Press (2008)
ISBN 9781932690569
Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (3/08)
The 6th Annual Rocky Mountain Disaster Mental Health Conference was held in Cheyenne, Wyoming from November 8-10, 2007. The main theme was: “From Crisis to Recovery: Resilience and Strategic Planning for the Future.” Presenters from the conference put their materials into articles which are in this book. This is an excellent resource for people who attended the conference because they can use this as a reference for the information presented.
The purpose of this conference is to present information, “to promote the development and application of practice, research and training in disaster mental health, critical incident stress management, traumatology, and other emergency response interventions and to promote community awareness, resilience and recovery.” This information is needed by people who deal with critical incident stress management, behavioral health professionals, first responders and others who might be dealing with crisis situations.
I did not attend this conference; however, I found the information presented to be fascinating. Several important topics were discussed, in areas of critical importance to what is happening in our world today. It is imperative that people who are involved in crisis situations read this material. It is all well written and presented in a way that is easily understood and very interesting.
Some of the topics covered traumatic stress in the workplace with issues like police suicide. Others involved emergency preparedness. It is so important that people who deal with emergency and disaster situations are appropriately trained and have resources to handle the stressors of dealing with these situations. Many times, their lives have been impacted in a way in which they are unable to handle the aftermath of having dealt with horrific situations, such as having to deal with an airplane crashing. There are also discussions about the importance of having disaster readiness plans in places such as tourist vacation spots where natural disasters or terroristic acts can occur. In addition to needing to be trained in advance about how to handle these events, people also need to have an understanding of the traditions of the cultures that they might be helping.
“Proceedings of the 6th Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Conference” is a must have for first responders and mental health professionals. Addressing the needs of people who work in these fields is critical. The better trained they are to be emotionally equipped for disasters, the better they can help others. I think that the 120 pages of information covered in this book will be some of the most important information needed by people in this field today.
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