Insight Matters
Spring, 2002

Committee Continues Disaster Preparation
by Marion E. Sherman, M.D., Chair, Ad Hoc Committee on Disaster Mental Health

The good news is: no interregional disasters in Ohio. OPA Disaster Committee membership includes psychiatrists from local chapters throughout Ohio, to provide statewide geographic coverage with a devoted group that continuously receives, and locally distributes, mental health disaster planning information. While other OPA members have been involved in disaster information dissemination and local educational efforts, I would like to thank official committee members Todd Ivan, MD, Fred Moss, MD, Kathleen Clegg, MD, Howard Sokolov, MD, and Douglas Smith, MD. As this OPA year comes to a close, we would like to express appreciation for the work that OPA committee members have done for this important cause. As we have accepted in our changed routines in security and planning areas, disaster preparedness, led partially by the OPA in Ohio, continues to become a way of life, to minimize future damage, and maximize mental health.

OPA goals and objectives include three goals. The first goal involves the consultative role to provide high level consultation and assistance to emergency management leadership. Here, on a local and state level, the committee helps to identify the appropriate psychiatric role within the Incident Command System, establish linkages, and develop mutually agreeable plans that provide for high-level consultation in local emergency management processes, including identification and training of psychiatrists. This goal is in the early stages of process and will obtain focus in the upcoming year.

The second goal promotes disaster mitigation, to educate and train regarding mental health disaster, and to encourage local mental health disaster planning. Education/training occurs with community education, legislative/governmental action, educational/school information, healthcare providers, media, and electronic education. On March 22, 2002, I was fortunate to present our plan internationally at the International Association of Forensic Mental Health Services Annual Meeting in Munich, Germany.

Additional news regarding training involves collaboration with the Ohio Chapter of the American Red Cross. There is soon to be released a condensation of the two day disaster mental health course into one day, designed for psychiatrists. When this becomes available, I will let you know the logistics and timing of registering for this course.

The third goal is the disaster response stage, to address post-incident surges in psychiatric needs following Disaster/Terrorist Events. This involves acute event management (in the hours to days following a disaster), short-term response stage (in the first month following a disaster), and long-term recovery response stage (more than one month following a disaster). We will continue to prepare for this day through goals one and two above.

The psychiatrists in Ohio have responded openly to the wake-up call, and I appreciate your returned disaster mental health surveys, your enthusiasm, your local efforts to educate, and your ongoing participation in moving forward in this important area.

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