Newswise — Bethesda, Md. – In the wake of rising global disasters and their impact on the population, the Uniformed Services University (USU), in conjunction with the American Psychiatric Association (APA), has created a first-of-its-kind course to ready understanding of and preparedness for such crises.
This groundbreaking course – “Disaster and Prevention Psychiatry: Protecting Health and Fostering Community Resilience” – offers a comprehensive, vital focus on public mental health principles and how they affect individuals and their disrupted communities. The online disaster psychiatric course is available at no cost to the public, accessible by creating a free account on APA’s Learning Center. The course also features eight continuing education credits upon completion. While created with psychiatrists and other mental health professionals in mind, this course contains valuable information on the widespread effects of varying global disasters that is highly useful to first responders, disaster workers, policy makers, and community leaders.
“This training will be of great value to healthcare professionals, disaster planners, and community leaders across a wide spectrum of professions,” said U.S. Public Health Service Capt. (Dr.) Joshua Morganstein, deputy director of USU’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS).
“This training fills a critical void in knowledge dissemination at a time where our world is being confronted by an increasing number of disasters that are leaving a profound psychological and behavioral health toll in their wake," said Dr. James (Curt) West, associate professor of Psychiatry at USU and CSTS scientist.
The course’s nine modules cover topics ranging from prevention to emergency response, including: basic concepts in disaster and preventive psychiatry; psychological and behavioral effects of disasters; risk and vulnerability to disasters; public health approaches to interventions and disasters; psychological first aid; risk and crisis communication; leadership consultation; protecting disaster responders; and disaster preparedness.
“Disaster and Preventive Psychiatry” aims to contribute significantly to the field of Disaster Psychiatry education, and was created through the foundational work by USU’s Department of Psychiatry and its CSTS.
The course can be found on the APA website: https://education.psychiatry.org/diweb/catalog/item?id=11565968. To make a free APA account, visit this site and select "New User."
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About the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences: The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, founded by an act of Congress in 1972, is the nation’s federal health sciences university and the academic heart of the Military Health System. USU students are primarily active duty uniformed officers in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Public Health Service who receive specialized education in tropical and infectious diseases, TBI and PTSD, disaster response and humanitarian assistance, global health, and acute trauma care. USU also has graduate programs in oral biology, biomedical sciences and public health committed to excellence in research. The University's research program covers a wide range of areas important to both the military and public health. For more information about USU and its programs, visit www.usuhs.edu.
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