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Haiti Earthquake Massachusetts State Response

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Haiti Earthquake Massachusetts State Response

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    1. Haiti Earthquake Massachusetts 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 children’s 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: re·sil·ience 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 Haitian Emotional 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 you questions/feedback: Ashley.Pearson@state.ma.us 617 626 8145

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