Lessons Learned From a Quad-State Postdisaster Project: Developing Accessible and Sustainable Integrated Mental and Physical Health Care Services.

The Mental and Behavioral Health (MBH) Capacity Project had a mission shared among 4 states to support MBH sustainability along the Gulf Coast. Integration of mental health into undersourced primary health clinics was an important goal of the project. The findings from the collaborative evaluation demonstrate long-term outcomes including the following: community has greater capacity and sustainability for quality health care; better informed and connected communities; and individuals are more informed, connected, and resilient.

Building Resilience after Disasters through the Youth Leadership Program: The Importance of Community and Academic Partnerships on Youth Outcomes.

Background: The Youth Leadership Program (YLP) was created as a school community-university partnership after the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina. The YLP goal was to support youth and improve by engaging them in disaster recovery initiatives.

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to describe the development of the St.

Identifying trajectories of change to improve understanding of integrated health care outcomes on PTSD symptoms post disaster.

Introduction: Addressing life stressors is an important function for integrated care, especially for health care homes located in disaster prone environments. This study evaluated trajectories of change for patients with postdisaster posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who were seen in integrated care. In addition to describing the results, this article provides the methods of subgroup analyses as this may be useful for others working in real-world practice.

Collaborative Health Care and Emerging Trends in a Community-Based Psychiatry Residency Model.

Objective: This paper provides a report of an academic department of psychiatry's journey into the change process associated with addressing the new requirements in health-care delivery, the emphasis on person-centered treatment models, and the implications for residency training programs. Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Department of Psychiatry's experience is based on responding to real-world shifts in which academic departments can play a leadership role.

Methods: Importantly, methods are based on person-centered collaboration being central to a successful change process and include a description of the training, with data supporting implementation of the model.

Gulf Coast Resilience Coalition: An Evolved Collaborative Built on Shared Disaster Experiences, Response, and Future Preparedness.

Objective: For close to a decade, the Gulf Coast of the United States has been in almost constant disaster recovery mode, and a number of lessons have been learned concerning disaster recovery and behavioral health. The purpose of this report was to describe the natural development of a Gulf Coast Resilience Coalition (GCRC).

Methods: The GCRC methods began with state-specific recovery goals following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and transitioned to a shared multistate and multidiscipline coalition.

Factors Contributing to Mental and Physical Health Care in a Disaster-Prone Environment.

Environment as a contextual factor plays an important role in southeastern Louisiana, as this area represents a major economic hub for the United States port, petroleum, and fishing industries. The location also exposes the population to both natural and technological disasters, including Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf oil spill. This study explored associations among hurricane loss, oil spill disruption, and environmental quality of life on mental and physical health on over 1,000 residents (N = 1,225) using structural equation modeling techniques.

Disaster behavioral health: legal and ethical considerations in a rapidly changing field.

Disaster behavioral health is increasingly regarded as a central part of disaster preparedness, response and recovery. Legal and ethical issues have received relatively little attention and have sparked divergent opinions. Optimally, understanding and applying legal and ethical considerations requires an understanding of the evolution of the disaster behavioral health field and the context of disaster response and recovery.

Perceptions of psychological first aid among providers responding to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

Psychological First Aid (PFA), developed by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and the Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, has been widely disseminated both nationally and internationally, and adopted and used by a number of disaster response organizations and agencies after major catastrophic events across the United States. This study represents a first examination of the perceptions of providers who utilized PFA in response to a disaster. Study participants included 50 individuals who utilized PFA in their response to Hurricane Gustav or Ike.

Disruption of existing mental health treatments and failure to initiate new treatment after Hurricane Katrina.

Objective: The authors examined the disruption of ongoing treatments among individuals with preexisting mental disorders and the failure to initiate treatment among individuals with new-onset mental disorders in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Methods: English-speaking adult Katrina survivors (N=1,043) responded to a telephone survey administered between January and March of 2006. The survey assessed posthurricane treatment of emotional problems and barriers to treatment among respondents with preexisting mental disorders as well as those with new-onset disorders posthurricane.

Mental health service use among hurricane Katrina survivors in the eight months after the disaster.

Objective: This study examined use of mental health services among adult survivors of Hurricane Katrina in order to improve understanding of the impact of disasters on persons with mental disorders.

Methods: A geographically representative telephone survey was conducted between January 19 and March 31, 2006, with 1,043 displaced and nondisplaced English-speaking Katrina survivors aged 18 and older. Survivors who reported serious and mild-moderate mood and anxiety disorders in the past 30 days and those with no such disorders were identified by using the K6 scale of nonspecific psychological distress.