Mental Health First Aid Need After Disaster, Study Finds
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“Hurricane Sandy is gone. For some the stress still lingers.” A New York subway ad underscores a call by researchers for better mental health response in disasters.
In a study published today in the Journal of American Medical Association, researchers recommended that disaster teams provide mental health care for victims of emergencies sooner and more systematically to prevent illnesses from going unseen and untreated after a traumatic experience. They called for a system of early assessment, triage and referral be established and empirically tested for a mental health care emergency response.