Mental, and Behavioral Health Disaster Preparedness and Response: What Have We Learned and How Prepared Is North Carolina?
Creators: name: Vance, Anthony
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2015

description: Natural and man-made disasters expose vulnerabilities within a community. As a nation we have experienced this is in recent years with hurricanes Floyd and Fran in North Carolina in 1996 and 1999 and the devastating hurricanes Katrina and Rita that ravaged Alabama, Louisiana, and parts of Texas in 2005. The capacity with which local communities, alongside state and federal governments are able to respond to these tragedies can dictate individuals' access to resources, evacuation strategies, and in some instances, mean the difference between life and death. The focus of disaster response and relief has traditionally been one concentrated on the physical health of a population and the physical structure of an affected area. It is vital to ensure that challenges faced by those currently engaged in mental and behavioral health treatment also are considered in preparation stages prior to a disaster. Even with federal and state policies in place, there continue to be gaps in disaster preparation and relief efforts, especially in ensuring access to ongoing behavioral and mental health treatment. Individuals involved in behavioral health and mental treatment prior to a disaster have been found to be more vulnerable than others in the community, to suffer longer during and after a disaster, and to be less likely to receive needed services such as medication management and targeted therapeutic services. (North, pg. 423) In general, the idea of behavioral health focuses more on substance abuse while mental health for example follows a diagnosis of bipolar or schizo-affective disorder by a psychiatrist or other licensed therapist. This paper will outline three major areas that need to be addressed in order to more effectively prepare for and respond to the mental health needs of individuals during disasters in the future. The first is interoperability, or our ability to communicate effectively during and after a disaster. Next is addressing state-to-state legal issues around allowing licensed health professionals from surrounding states to come into and assist a different state during a disaster. Limiting this ability to act in a timely fashion can impede the transmission of critical services and resources to the most vulnerable populations. Last is documentation failure. At this time there is no centralized back-up database for patient information on those being seen by a behavioral health or mental health specialist; this means that when a database is destroyed in a disaster, so are all of a patient's records. For a patient this means that when they travel across state lines searching for therapeutic or medical assistance, the providers will have no way of knowing any historical medical background other than what the patient tells them. . Many states, including North Carolina, do not have adequate mental or behavioral health infrastructure to be prepared for a disaster like Hurricane Katrina. History has shown that such disasters will continue to occur. This paper seeks to answer the questions of what have we learned about mental and behavioral health disaster preparedness and response, and is North Carolina prepared for a large-scale disaster.