Texas Psychologist
Report on the APA State Leadership Conference Disaster Response Network Meeting Washington, D.C. March 5-7, 2006 Rita Justice, PhD DRN Co-Chair
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he DRN is alive and well and working hard! Chairs representing 44 states met in D.C. in March 2006 for two days to discuss lessons learned, frustrations, successes, and share experiences with each other. The groupings were both by size of state and regions, providing opportunities for meeting different people and exchanging different kinds of information. The first meeting, Saturday afternoon, was by state size, which gave me an opportunity to learn how Atlanta handled their 100,000
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evacuees, and, later, by region, to accept appreciation from the Mississippi Chair for all we had done in Houston for evacuees from their state and Louisiana. Sunday morning there was a training on “Multicultural Knowledge and Awareness in the Delivery of Disaster Mental Health Services.” The workshop speakers were Priscilla Dass-Brailsford, EdD, and Kevin Washington, PhD The small group exercise, video, and music gave opportunity to reflect on discrimination we have all experienced in some way, as well
as looking at the cultural history of the people who were displaced by the hurricanes. At the DRN business meeting on Sunday afternoon, we sat by region and discussed several questions, starting with “Lessons learned as a result of responding to Katrina” and “What would be your top 10 favorite resources to go out on a disaster assignment in the deployment kit?” (Hand sanitizer and fanny packs were top picks!) Monday morning, there was a workshop entitled “Beyond Immediate Aid: Bolstering Communities with Psychological Support Following Disaster.” The panel of speakers was from Texas, Kentucky, Georgia, and North Dakota. The audience was state leaders and a few DRN folks. Post-crisis activities range from offering training on a telehealth network (Kentucky) to do exit interviews with all 358 mental health responders (Georgia) to developing training and doing pro bono work with the responders (North Dakota). For Texas, our emphasis now is networking with the many organizations responding to the needs of the evacuees/ new residents and expanding the DRN network within Texas. There is no substitute for “flesh to flesh” and the DRN meeting was no exception. Many people have been working, and continue to work, very hard, to help the displaced and traumatized get on with their lives, and it was inspiring to be in the midst of people who have taken a leadership role for psychology to do its share. SUMMER 2006