CHAPTER 13 Interventions in Disaster Mental Health Counseling A NEW GENERATION OF DISASTER MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELORS Catastrophic events have accelerated worldwide within the past 15 years. In America, the horrific terrorist attacks of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, and the devastation that took place from Hurricane Katrina that took place on August 29, 2005, left emotional, physical, spiritual, and environmental scars upon our minds, bodies, and spirits. The desolation left in the aftermath has created a sort of historical trauma among Westerners. This has prompted a consciousness shift within the mental health counseling field and other allied helping professions. Since 9/11, there have been a multitude of other catastrophic events that have required the direct and indirect interventions of mental health counselors. Indeed, medical and physical interventions by first responders are critical for survival. The psychological first aid and mental health rescue in the aftermath and recovery phase are critical in working with individuals, families, and communities that have experienced civil unrest, acts of terrorism, school shootings, workplace violence, and the unending natural events that keep the Earth out of balance, such as fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and droughts. There are many geographic regions of the planet that are not safe places to live. In part, many areas of the United States, as well as the world, have been destabilized by human engineering and climate change; hence, they are prone to natural disasters (e.g., hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes). Since World War II, person-made disasters have grown exponentially (e.g., war, civil unrest, genocide, ethnic cleansing) along with a host of biological pandemics (e.g., HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Zika viruses). Each of these catastrophic events requires a multitude of first responders to provide medical, physical, psychological, emotional, social, and psychosocial first aid. We are all impacted by critical incidents in the United States and abroad. Critical incidents are replayed on the nightly news, and we are all affected at some level of consciousness. As a consequence, many in the United States may be experiencing the emotional,
Disaster Mental Health Counseling : Responding to Trauma in a Multicultural Context, edited by Mark A., PhD, LPC, DCMHS, CRC, CCM, CCMC Stebnicki, Springer Publishing Company, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/liberty/detail.action?docID=4751279.
Created from liberty on 2021-09-13 00:38:40.