Integrating Emergency Management and Disaster Behavioral Health

Dr. Brian Flynn is currently an Associate Director, Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (the nation’s military Medical School). Through his career he has had a strong focus on the psychosocial sequelae of large scale disasters and emergencies. During his 31 years in the United State Public Health Service, in addition to other responsibilities, he worked in, managed, and supervised the federal government's domestic disaster mental health program. In that role, he served on-site with emergency management professionals at many, if not most, of the nation's largest disasters When he retired from the USPHS in 2002 at the rank of Rear Admiral/Assistant Surgeon General, he directed nearly all of his professional efforts toward advancing the field of preparing for and responding to large scale trauma. He provides training and consultation to both public and private entities both nationally and internationally. Ron Sherman spent almost 29 years as an emergency management specialist with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He worked on over 200 federal disaster operations, including some of this nation’s most devastating events. Many times during his career he was in the role of Federal Coordinating Officer (FCO), the on-site official in charge of all Federal response and recovery efforts. After Hurricane Katrina Ron served as the FCO in Alabama before becoming the Senior Housing Official responsible for disaster housing operations for the entire Gulf Coast. After retiring in 2007 he continued his emergency management involvement by starting a Citizen Corps Council in his hometown and is now the leader of a Community Emergency Response Team. He provides emergency management consulting services to communities and emergency response training for volunteer groups. He has successfully integrated the operations of a Community Emergency Response Team with a new Medical Reserve Corps team and made Psychiatric First Aid a requisite part of the training curriculum.

"Behavioral health must be recognized as an essential component of emergency response. Everyone touched by disaster, whether as a survivor or rescuer, is affected mentally and emotionally by the experience, and the psychological effects can linger. Integrating Emergency Management and Disaster Behavioral Health is the guide both emergency management and behavioral health professionals need as a foundation for any sound disaster preparedness, response, and recovery strategy." --Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, Co-Founder, the Carter Center

• Section I: Context1. Where Emergency Management and Disaster Behavioral Health Meet: Through an Emergency Management Lens2. Where Emergency Management and Disaster Behavioral Health Meet: Through a Disaster Behavioral Health Lens3. Why Is Integrating Disaster Behavior Health Essential to Emergency Management? Challenges and Opportunities4. Why Is Integrating Emergency Management Essential to Disaster Behavioral Health? Challenges and OpportunitiesSection II: Key Areas of Integration5. Integration in Disasters of Different Types, Severity, and Location6. Not All Disasters Are the Same: Understanding Similarities and Differences7. What Can DBH Actually Do To Make Emergency Managers Jobs Easier?8. Expanding the Tent: How Training and Education Partnerships with Other Professions Can Enhance Both EM and BH9. Linking with Private Sector Business and IndustrySection III: Special Opportunities to Enhance Integration10. Integration in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC)/Emergency Communications Center (ECC)11. Risk and Crisis Communications12. How to Navigate External Factors: Legal, Ethical, and Political Issues13. Sustaining Integration: A Way Forward14. Conclusion/Summary