E N D
1. Haiti EarthquakeMassachusetts State Response
Building Emotional Resilience in response to the January Earthquake
Ashley Pearson
Director of Emergency Mgmt Svcs.
MA Dept. of Mental Health
May 14, 2010
3. January 12th Earthquake Worst Earthquake in 200 years to hit the island nation, 7.0 country is vulnerable
200-350,000 people deceased
24 aftershocks measuring 5 5.9
Mainly in the Port-au-Prince area
2009: 10 Million people
Pre-earthquake, 60% of pop. Under 24yrs.
Poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere
4. Haitian MA - Snapshot 3rd largest population in the country
Approx. 70,000 people (2008 US Census estimate)
Haitians are relatively new as an immigrant population 1960s
Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Randolph, Brockton and Worcester
Integrated across economic lines
5. Earthquake impacts Haitians in MA Grief and Loss family members
Providing Aid bringing family members here
Mobilization of aid
Limits of available disaster aid
Many going to help in Haiti
Ongoing recovery
6. State Responses to Date State Dept. Office of Refugees and Immigrants
January 14th mobilization of DMH resources
Support to DMH Staff
Support to community, PFA trainings, DRCs
450 Responder packets distributed
DPH (CDC funds) & SERG Grant
No Repatriation, small medical flights
7. DPH Response Development of a Network of Care
Via Emergency Preparedness grant
Already existed via Mass League & CHCs
Providing
11 CHCs funding for behavioral health support, from Cambridge Brockton
Focus on post-disaster mental health and trauma recovery services to Haitian-American Community
Training, trauma-informed services w/mh needs
Use of linguistically and culturally competent mh clinicians
Use of CHCs already known to the community to provide continuity of care
Address youth and childrens needs
Public information, outreach and recruitment of community input
$500k from February to June 30, 2010
8. Examples of DPH services One-to-one counseling
Psychosocial group work
Community meetings with psycho educational components
Neighborhood outreach campaigns
Inclusion of community members
Media outreach w/mental health components to offer counseling & advice
9. SERG Proposal-Focus Relief and disaster recovery focus
Disaster behavioral health model
Expands beyond CHC:
Community members
Haitian returning/coming into state post-event
US citizens who were living in Haiti but returning post-event
Responders returning from helping in Haiti and those working with the community since January
10. SERG Grant Programming $1 million for a year
Extend CHC work, building upon network of care
Trainings disaster behavioral health
Track A: train community members in
Psychological First Aid
Grief and Loss
Psychosocial education
Coping support skills-building
Track B: focus on helpers
Staff at CHCs
Faith based, community leaders, etc.
Responders
PFA, Grief/loss, cultural competence, education on the human impact of disasters
11. What is the Response built upon? Past disaster experience
What we are learning from the community
Use of disaster programming
Disaster Behavioral Health techniques
Adaptation to the unique circumstances of this event and the population
Available resources
12. Resilience Buzz Term
Main Entry: resilience
Pronunciation: \ri-'zil-y?n(t)s\
Function: noun
Date: 1824
1 : the capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress
2 : an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change
Resilience in psychology is the positive capacity of people to cope with stress and catastrophe.
13. Emotional Resilience Resilience" corresponds to cumulative "protective factors" and is used in opposition to cumulative "risk factors
Building it develops an adaptive system that uses exposure to stress to provide resistance to future negative events
Terms for Emotional Resilience
resilience
psychological resilience
hardiness
resourcefulness
Mental toughness
14. Signs of HaitianEmotional Resilience
15. How they are helping each other
16. Unique Conditions-Haiti Cultural Norms Health & Mental Health
17. What is Universal We are learning from Haiti that
Impact is influenced by conditions but
How people experience the human impacts
Comes down to individual circumstances
Conditions continue to be difficult
PFA, Emotional Resilience techniques
Give the people the tools Triple T
Help continues individuals, internal, external
18. Haiti - Recommendations #1 Talk to the Haitians, community
Ask first, act later
Remember the uniqueness of individuals
cultural norms do not equal standards of care
Toolbox Approach
We are still in the middle & recovery will likely be protracted
19. Thank youquestions/feedback:Ashley.Pearson@state.ma.us617 626 8145