International disaster mental health services: a survey.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Disasters↗
Biomedical subjects
Craig L Katz
Publications and source records attributed to Craig L Katz.
A mental health program for ground zero rescue and recovery workers: cases and observations.
Clinical vignettes from the World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Mental Health Monitoring and Treatment Program at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City are presented. The hospital-based program pairs mental health screenings with federally funded occupational medical screenings to identify persons with mental health problems related to their rescue and recovery roles. The program also provides on-site mental health treatment. The cases illustrate the diverse mental health needs of the rescue and recovery workers, some of whom initially sought treatment years after September 11, 2001. The cases show that in addition to symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, workers experienced survivor guilt, distressing memories of childhood trauma, shame associated with intense feelings, substance abuse relapse, psychosis, and problems with family relationships.
Adult↗
General disaster psychiatry.
This article attempts to make further sense of disasters and specifically terrorism as one particular form of disaster from the perspective of psychology and mental health.
Chemical Warfare↗
A survey of New Yorkers after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
OBJECTIVE: This study examined the prevalence of psychiatric symptoms among residents/workers in Manhattan 3-6 months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. METHOD: A total of 1,009 adults (516 men and 493 women) were interviewed in person throughout Manhattan. All answered questions about themselves before and after September 11 that included their emotional status. RESULTS: A total of 56.3% had at least one severe or two or more mild to moderate symptoms. Women reported significantly more symptoms than men. Loss of employment, residence, or family/friends correlated with greater and more severe symptoms. The most distressing experiences appeared to be painful memories and reminders; dissociation was rare. Only 26.7% of individuals with severe symptoms were obtaining treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Over half of the individuals had some emotional sequelae 3-6 months after September 11, but the percent was decreasing. Only a small portion of those with severe responses was seeking treatment.
Adaptation, Psychological↗
Research on psychiatric outcomes and interventions subsequent to disasters: a review of the literature.
Tragic events such as those of September 11, 2001, underscore the increasingly prominent role that psychiatrists play in aiding survivors, emergency workers, and broader communities to cope with disaster. The present review was undertaken to identify whether there exists a scientific basis for the practice of psychiatry in the aftermath of disasters. Most of the extensive literature over the past 30 years suggests that disasters have psychopathological consequences as well as medical and social ones. Pre-existing mood and anxiety disorders, although surprisingly not psychotic illness, appear to be risk factors for further psychopathology after a disaster. Thus, both acute psychopharmacological and psychotherapeutic interventions at disaster sites may prevent long-term sequelae, although their efficacy remains uncertain. Future controlled treatment trials are needed to determine the optimal treatment strategy.
Acute Disease↗
The medical student experience with disasters and disaster response.
Medical students from New York City were integrally involved in the response by health professionals to aid the families of victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. The present study was performed to investigate the emotional impact of this involvement on medical students from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. One hundred fifty-seven students responded to a mail survey that explored their personal and professional involvement in the disaster as well as their psychiatric symptoms in the week after the event and at the time of the survey (3.5 months after the event). Findings suggested a differential emotional impact on female students and on students involved in less supervised and more emotionally intense activities. However, involvement in the relief effort, per se, did not contribute to psychiatric symptomatology. It may have been associated with enhanced professional self-esteem among the students. These findings have implications for future planning of psychiatric response to disasters.
Journal Article↗
Disasters, psychiatry, and psychodynamics.
The unique experience of Disaster Psychiatry Outreach, a voluntary organization devoted to providing psychiatric assistance to people affected by disasters, provides a valuable substrate for exploring the role of psychodynamics in the human experience of disaster and trauma. This article offers a theoretical framework for such an experience that takes into account personal meaning, ego psychology and defenses, and grief work and suggests how to employ this framework in the setting of a disaster by way of examples from the events of Sept. 11. A useful clinical construct for future disaster work known as the "trauma tent" is ultimately proposed, as are novel applications of psychodynamics toward the prevention and mitigation of manmade and natural disasters.
Community-Institutional Relations↗