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Delivery of Mental Health Care in a Large Disaster Shelter

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2015

Carol S. North ,
Richard V. King ,
Raymond L. Fowler ,
Rita Kucmierz ,
Jess D. Wade ,
Dave Hogan  and
John T. Carlo
Carol S. North*
Affiliation:
Metrocare Services and the Departments of Psychiatry and Emergency Medicine of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas
Richard V. King
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas
Raymond L. Fowler
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas
Rita Kucmierz
Affiliation:
Dallas County Health and Human Services, Dallas, Texas
Jess D. Wade
Affiliation:
Dallas County Health and Human Services, Dallas, Texas
Dave Hogan
Affiliation:
City of Dallas Police Department, Dallas, Texas
John T. Carlo
Affiliation:
Aids Arms, Dallas, Texas
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Carol S. North, MD, MPE, The Nancy and Ray L. Hunt Chair in Crisis Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, UT Southwestern Medical Center, 6363 Forest Park Road, Dallas, TX 75390-8828 (e-mail: carol.north@utsouthwestern.edu).
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Abstract

Large numbers of evacuees arrived in Dallas, Texas, from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita just 3 weeks apart in 2005 and from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike just 3 weeks apart again in 2008. The Dallas community needed to locate, organize, and manage the response to provide shelter and health care with locally available resources. With each successive hurricane, disaster response leaders applied many lessons learned from prior operations to become more efficient and effective in the provision of services. Mental health services proved to be an essential component. From these experiences, a set of operating guidelines for large evacuee shelter mental health services in Dallas was developed, with involvement of key stakeholders. A generic description of the processes and procedures used in Dallas that highlights the important concepts, key considerations, and organizational steps was then created for potential adaptation by other communities. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2015;9:423–429)

Keywords

disastersemergency preparednesshurricanemental disorders
Type
Concepts in Disaster Medicine
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 9 , Supplement 4 , August 2015 , pp. 423 - 429
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2015 

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References

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