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Response to Catastrophic Events
Hurricanes, floods, fires, terrorism and acts of war lead to trauma for many individuals. Psychologists and laypersons can be helpful to the victims of trauma. We have provided below some useful information for psychotherapists for helping individuals who have been traumatized. In most cases, assistance is coordinated through local and national government agencies or through private agencies such as the Red Cross.
As you may know, over the first month following a traumatic event many of the individuals in the area will be suffering from Acute Stress Disorder—and a percentage of people will eventually develop PTSD. Information on trauma and PTSD may be found at the following websites:
- Leahy and Holland’s chapter on PTSD
- The National Center for PTSD
- The International Association for Traumatic Stress Studies
- The National Mental Health Association’s Coping With Disaster
- Ken Pope’s website – contains resources related to Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 Tsunami
- Medline Plus: Coping With Natural Disasters (A service of the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health)
- The Mayo Clinic Disaster Information
