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National Center for PTSD

Acknowledgements

Disaster Mental Health Services: A Guidebook for Clinicians and Administrators

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their deep appreciation and gratitude to a number of individuals who unselfishly shared their knowledge and experience to help make the publication of this Guidebook possible. The disaster mental health curriculum developed over many years by Diane Myers provided a foundation from which to organize the materials presented here. In addition, her comments on the early drafts offered numerous suggestions to improve its content. We would also like to thank Janice Lord, former Director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, for generously sharing her materials on death notification.

Special thanks are owed to Karen Sitterle and Peter Spofford for their comments and support of the publication. As a member of the American Psychological Association's Task Force on the Mental Health Response to the Oklahoma City Bombing, Dr. Sitterle arranged for this Guidebook's reference list to be used in the Task Force's Final Report. In turn, the Task Force provided us with the resource list appearing in the Guidebook's Appendix B. As Director of Project COPE following the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, Mr. Spofford played a key role in the collaboration between the National Center for PTSD and Project COPE to deliver disaster mental services to citizens, disaster workers, staff of county, city, non-profit agencies, and children and teachers from schools within the county.

We are especially thankful to Mr. Joseph Gray, Acting Chief Consultant, Emergency Management Strategic Health Care Group, Department of Veterans Affairs for his foresight and support to include mental health services as a vital component of disaster response and the National Center as an integral part in developing a national disaster mental health services training curriculum from which came this manual. From the Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Headquarters, Dr. Tom Horvath, Chief, Mental Health Strategic Health Group, and Dr. Laurent Lehmann, Associate Chief for Psychiatry and Coordinator PTSD Programs, have provided invaluable guidance and support for the National Center's efforts to support VA in contributing resources to national emergencies and disasters. We would also like to express our appreciation to Dr. Alfonso Batres, Director, Readjustment Counseling Services, Department of Veterans Affairs, and Dr. Joseph Gelsomino, Clinical Field Manager East, Readjustment Counseling Services, Department of Veterans Affairs for their input to this manual and for making it possible for Readjustment Counseling Service to have an integral role in the national disaster mental training program. We would also like to thank Nadine Ward, Department of Veterans Affairs Employee Education System, and Connie Boatwright, Department of Veterans Affairs Emergency Management Strategic Health Care Group, for their work in helping us get started with the first national trainings.

We're also grateful to Jane Morgan, Associate for Mental Health, American Red Cross, for her vital input to this Guide and the National Center training curriculum, and to the efforts now underway to develop a plan for joint VA-Red Cross disaster mental health deployment within the National Disaster Medical System.

We would like to acknowledge the tireless work of Helen Buzianis, Department of Veterans Affairs Media Center in Salt Lake, who labored over the manuscript and ensured that it looked interesting to read. Jane Clanton, Diane Palumbo, and the Employee Education System Graphics Team at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in St. Louis added the finishing touches to production with remarkable speed. We thank John Aboytes and Sherry Riney for their proofreading skills and good humor.

Lastly, we would like to thank Dr. Gail Lebovic, Palo Alto, CA for her generous donation that made it possible to grace the manual's cover with Jasper Johns' masterpiece, "Map," and Bob Panzer and Anne Prival of Visual Artists and Galleries Association (VAGA) for clearing the rights to reproduce Mr. Johns' work.


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