Emergency and Disaster Mental Health
Responding to a catastrophic, wide-reaching event like a wildfire, community shooting or other disaster requires a unique set of skills. Providing support services outside the confines of a therapy or other controlled professional office offers the opportunity to really meet people where they are in a crisis, but also presents unique challenges that the helping professional must overcome.
Through my experiences working with communities devasted through wildfires, mass shootings, and other wide-reaching traumas, I can offer organizations individualized ways to plan for and respond more effectively to these events. As a Red Cross Disaster Mental Health volunteer for many years and through other specialized training, I have gained a body of evidence-based knowledge on how to lead individuals and groups through life's most challenging scenarios.
Disaster Mental Health trainings often include the following topics:
- Lifecycle of a disaster
- Foundations of disaster mental health counseling - skills that meet the immediate needs of a disaster victim.
- Understanding how the disasters impact the brain and body.
- Planning for the unthinkable and developing regular training to keep staff prepared.
- Compassion Fatigue/ Professional self-care in the midst of a disaster and knowing when to step aside and seek your own help.
- Specific interventions around responding to communities impacted by fires, incidents of mass violence and other disasters.
Trainings and consulting services around these topics are individualized to meet the needs of the organization/ community seeking support. A first step is for us to have a conversation to discuss your needs.
For more information, please contact me at robert@roberttherapy.com or by calling 310-924-2432.