The Dialogue: Environmental Disasters and Resiliency

	Volume 11, Issue 2

	Download the Full Issue [PDF - 5.9 MB] For this edition of The Dialogue, we turn our attention to environmental disasters and resiliency. Our first article revisits the Gulf Coast and examines the effects from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, 5 years later. It relates how integrating community organizations into resilience trainings can aid in long-term recovery. Our second article reflects on how the looming threat of climate change can affect everyone—those living in directly affected areas as well as those who feel anxiety at the prospect of our planet changing in a long-term way. The final article examines another group of responders—the "first" first responders—in need of culturally competent support and resilience training: 911 telecommunicators. Post-Disaster Resilience and Recovery in the Gulf of Mexico: Integrating Communities in the Design and Delivery of Resilience Trainings Research from repeated disasters in the Gulf area has shown that all have had significant mental health effects on disaster workers and communities. In response to the mental health effects seen after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, SAMHSA and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Worker Training Program joined forces to develop training interventions for disaster workers and communities. Special Commentary: Coming to Terms With Climate Change: The Multiple Benefits of Psychological Preparedness and Taking Action This article sheds light on how the feeling of helplessness in the face of climate change can cause distress and how having strategies for attending to one's "internal environment" (i.e., distressing thoughts, anxiety) is essential. Cultural Competency in Disaster Behavioral Health Preparedness and Response All ethnic groups, institutions, organizations, and even occupations possess defining cultures that are important to consider when developing or offering disaster behavioral health preventive or remedial interventions. Recommended Resources TIP 59: Improving Cultural Competence This guidance defines and describes cultural competence and explains its importance in behavioral health (mental health and substance use disorder) treatment and services. It covers core areas of cultural competence for counselors and others who provide behavioral health services, ways for individual practitioners and organizations to be more culturally aware and competent, and information about counseling people of specific cultures (e.g., African American, Hispanic and Latino, white American). Applying Cultural Awareness to Disaster Behavioral Health Webinar This webinar covers key principles of cultural awareness and how people of different cultures interact around the time of a disaster. It also provides suggestions for more culturally aware disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. Understanding Historical Trauma When Responding to an Event in Indian Country: Tips for Disaster Responders This tip sheet helps disaster response workers better understand historical trauma in the Native American culture and how it may affect disaster preparedness and response efforts, and offers strategies for providing disaster response assistance with cultural sensitivity. About The Dialogue The Dialogue, a quarterly technical assistance journal, is an arena for professionals in the disaster behavioral health field to share information, resources, trends, solutions to problems, and accomplishments. Read previous issues of The Dialogue.