Hannah Zulch Mental Health Preparedness

The mental health professional I interviewed was Carol McClelland of Freedom House Recovery Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Carol has worked with Freedom House for a year as the directory of outpatient services and is licensed as a LPC, LPCS, LCAS, CCS, and MA. Carol’s job requires her to be responsible for the direct oversight of all clinical operations and clinical integrity for outpatient services at Freedom House. The hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm, along with a crisis and detox center that is available for contact 24/7. Carol has plenty of experience in the mental health field, such as working as a dual diagnosis/substance abuse outpatient therapist, working with the severely mentally ill, working as a criminal justice outpatient therapist, and also working in a methadone clinic. She chose this career after her experiences in working with mental health, and her extensive education in psychology and counseling. Carol stated that outpatient services was the most interesting out of her job experiences, so when she was offered the job at Freedom House, she accepted.

Preparedness is the ability to handle the event. This includes planning and preparations to help in response and rescue operations. Evacuation plans and stocking up on food, water, medicine, and pet supplies are examples of

Bethany Hamilton shows resilience in many ways because she did not give up when she got bit by the shark, she showed bravery towards the other amputees, and she was an amputee pro surfer. She is a courageous in what she does. She has other amputees looking up to her in a very special way. Bethany wants other to not let being an amputee push them away from doing what they love. Bethany loves what she does.

According to Jack Herrmann is Asst. Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester School of Medicine “Disaster management is the preparation for, response to, and recovery from disaster. While there are different understandings of Disaster Management, it is generally viewed as a cycle with the following five key phases:

In day to day operations, uncertainties do occur. Henceforth it would be important to have a contingent and well detailed disaster preparedness plan and procedures. Healthcare systems, on a day to day basis, are faced with emergencies in form of disasters. As a result, majority of medical centers have well-structured exit plans in the event of a disaster occurring("Hospital Disaster Preparedness: Your Guide to Getting Started - Emergency Preparedness", 2011). However, this essay will aim at interviewing one of the top disaster preparedness staffat the Houston Methodist Hospital. In the interview, I will seek to identify the top three disasters that the Houston Methodist Hospital is prepared for. Similarly, in the interview, I would seek to identify the top lessons learnt from disaster preparedness at the hospitals.As it concludes it would summarize the findings with regards to the interview stated below. Below is an excerpt from the interview to answer the two aforementioned questions.

Fritz, Charles. Disasters and Mental Health: Therapeutic Principles Drawn from Disaster Studies. Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware, 1996.

Healthy People 2020 recently added a new topic of preparedness to its list of topics and objectives. The objective that coincides with the health issue of disaster preparedness is the 13th objective. For this objective, Healthy People 2020 plans to increase the proportion of adults whose household has an emergency plan that includes instructions for household members about where to go in the event of a disaster. In 2011, 46.0% of adults aged 18 and over have a household emergency plan that includes instructs for household members about where to go and what to do in the event of a disaster (Preparedness., 2014). In addition, Healthy People 2020’s goal is to increase the percentage of adults who have an emergency plan to

Also, this study was to explore whether or not resiliency parallel with an individual knowledge of symptoms and signs of PTSD and if having advantage to useful resources resulted in a greater resilience score (Zwanziger, et al., 2017). The type of method which was used to measure resilience was a cross-sectional exploratory design. The Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) was used to determine if the knowledge of PTSD and the advantage to useful resources are connected to an individual elevation of resilience. This measurement tool was also used to compose fundamental knowledge of PTSD symptoms and sign of military spouses. The results reveal as the awareness of PTSD symptoms and advantage to useful resources increased, the ability to be resilient is enlarged by over 1.5 times (Zwanziger, et al.,

In order to determine the specific challenges of disaster mental health (DMH) responders, Hambrick et al conducted an audit. The data was gathered through semi-structured group interviews using open ended questions with nine clinicians at various Community Mental Health Centers (CMHC). All CMHCs had a disaster response team who completed at least six hours of Psychological First Aid (PFA) training. The PFA guide that was consistently reference is a guide used to direct posttraumatic distress caused by a disaster. The interview content consisted of questions about the organization they represented, the needs of the organization, and phone interviews asking about barriers of DMH at the organization they work. The purpose of this experiment

Concern about the increase in disasters worldwide has prompted advocates of mental health interventions to study the relationship between mental health and disasters more closely in order to devise effective strategies

Data obtained by assessing social vulnerability must be implemented within each phase of the emergency management process; mitigation, response, and recovery. First, to effectively respond and recover from incidents emergency management agencies must concentrate on the mitigation phase to prevent incidents from happening in the first place. This is achieved through a thorough hazard/vulnerability analysis (HVA). This type of analysis assesses the risk of physical, economic, and social vulnerability within all communities of a given jurisdiction (Lindell et al., 2006, p. 165). Additionally, the basis of the HVA allows emergency managers to effectively plan for disaster by creating pre-planned responses to disasters (rather than improvised response) and staging resources to locations with the highest probability of risk; ultimately contributing to the mitigation and response phases.

Effective disaster management is highly important when it comes to assisting in rescue and relief to affected. This does not only include post disaster rescue efforts but these disaster management activities should be proactive. They start right from taking preventive measures before the disaster actually occurs and goes on till the effected people are resettled back in their lives. This disaster management pertaining to human life is not only associated with physical well being but also focuses on psychological, emotional, and spiritual rehabilitation.

Risk for disasters is a part of life; emergency situations occur more frequently than many people believe. A wise person plans for the worse, and hopes for the best. After a disaster, how well a community can recover will depend largely on how well they prepared in advance. Risk management includes identifying any potential risks to a community and proactively planning to minimize the threat. Proactive organization of resources and people to respond to emergencies can mean the difference between a community’s ability to regroup and recover, and the loss of life. To better

Over the past few decades, the significance, magnitude and consequence of risk management and communication have been brought before the world over and over again in a number of situations related to health, terrorist activities, natural disasters etc. When one turns the pages of history, it is rather obvious that lack of planning and absence of resources due to unpreparedness makes it difficult for the concerned authorities to manage an emergency or epidemic a problematic and traumatic task. The chaotic situations can turn out to be more nerve-racking and tense when preparations are not made before hand (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2002).

Specific measures taken before disasters strike, to ensure effective response constitute preparation. This phase may include specific contingency planning, emergency exercises, training, installation and use of warning systems.