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Webinar

F25-702 Social Work in Disasters and Public Health Emergencies

Total Credits: 3 Category I CEs

Categories:
700 Professional Growth & Development |  DC Public Health Priorities
Instructor:
Jonathan D. White, Ph.D., LCSW-C, CPH
Course Levels:
Intermediate
Duration:
3 Hours 15 Minutes
Target Audience:
Social Workers, LCPCs, and Psychologists
Dates
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Description

As the frequency and severity of natural disasters increase due to climate change and as there human-caused disasters, including technological disasters and incidents of mass violence, grow in number, fully of half the U.S. population has or will experience a disaster. This course is designed to prepare social workers in a variety of practice settings, including behavioral health services, schools, human services programs, and domestic violence programs, to understand the effects of disasters and public health emergencies (including pandemics) on their clients and how to mitigate or address the harms disasters inflict on individuals, families, and communities. The course will cover four types of crisis events—natural disasters, technological disasters, incidents of mass violence/terrorism, and public health emergencies—and the different ways these events disrupt community life and create stress, grief, and trauma. Specific strategies for addressing population-level crisis events, and how they are both similar to and differ from individual-level crisis responses, will prepare social workers in a variety of settings to help individuals, families, and communities mitigate disaster harms and recover from disasters.    

 

This workshop is in accordance with and compliance with the NASW Standards with a focus on service, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, competence, and social workers’ ethical responsibilities to clients, in practice settings, as professionals, to the social work profession, to the broader society. 

This workshop is in compliance with the Maryland Board of Social Work Examiners’ COMAR 10.42.03.06.A(5) and with the District of Columbia Board of Social Work 17-70-7008.4.   

District of Columbia:  This workshop meets the continuing education requirement for DC Public Health Priorities in the following topic: 7. Preparing your patients for an emergency and handling vulnerable populations in an emergency.   

Instructor

Jonathan D. White, Ph.D., LCSW-C, CPH Related Seminars and Products

Jonathan White, PhD, LCSW-C (he/him), is a clinical social worker, a retired US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps officer, and an emergency manager specializing in the needs of children and vulnerable populations in crisis events.     

He served in the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), US Department of Health and Human Services, where he was the director of the Office of Community Mitigation and Recovery, the office responsible for HHS’ disaster behavioral health, community resilience, and disaster recovery programs.* In that role, he also served as national coordinator for the Health, Education, and Human Services Recovery Support Function, which is responsible for sectoral elements of long-term disaster recovery missions nationwide.     

In 2018–2019, he led the mission to reunify children separated from their parents at the US border as the federal health coordinating official for the reunification mission, and served as the HHS operational lead for family reunification. In testimony before Congress, he was the first federal official to describe the harms of family separation to children and to advocate an end to separation for reasons other than the safety of the child. His efforts in 2017-2018 to prevent family separation, and in 2018-2019 to reunify children with their parents, are featured in Errol Morris’ 2024 documentary film Separated, Caitlin Dickerson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2022 Atlantic article “Family Separation: An American Tragedy,” Jacob Soboroff’s bestselling book Separated, and books by Jean Guerrero, Julie Hirschfeld Davis, and Michael D. Shear.   

Prior to joining ASPR, he was the deputy director for children’s programs in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), where he led the Unaccompanied Children Program, which provides care and services to 40,000–60,000 children and youth annually who enter the US without parents or legal guardians. He previously served as senior adviser in ACF’s Immediate Office of the Assistant Secretary, responsible for crisis management, public health, and strategic initiatives. Prior to that he served as deputy director of ACF’s Office of Human Services Emergency Preparedness and Response. Earlier in his social work career, he was an oncology social worker with the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, and in prior careers he taught English to undergraduates and coordinated logistics for international labor union campaigns. He holds a Maryland LCSW-C, and is a Maryland Board-approved supervisor. He has deployed or held national-level leadership roles in over eighty domestic disaster, public health emergency, and humanitarian crisis events.    

* Position information for identification purposes only. Course content does not necessarily reflect positions of the US Department of Health and Human Services.  

Agenda & Learning Objectives

AGENDA:

8:50 am– 9:00 am Log on   

9:00 am – 10:30 am   

  • Introduction (5 minutes)   

  • Defining disaster (10 minutes)   

  • Natural disasters: what they are and how they impact survivors (15 minutes)   

  • Technological disasters: what they are and how they impact survivors (15 minutes)   

  • Intentional disasters (incidents of mass violence and terrorism) : what they are and how they impact survivors (15 minutes)   

  • Public health emergencies (including pandemics) : what they are and how they impact survivors (15 minutes)   

10:30 am – 10:45 am Break   

10:45 am – 12:15 pm   

  • Population-level crisis vs. individual-level crisis: common elements and crucial differences (10 minutes)   

  • Disasters and pre-event disparities (10 minutes)   

  • Disaster impacts across the lifespan (15 minutes)   

  • What social workers can do for clients and communities (45 minutes)   

  • Last questions and wrap-up (10 minutes)   

12:15 pm Adjournment  

 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Upon the completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  • Differentiate the four types of disaster events and the psychosocial consequences of each.    

  • Describe developmentally and age-specific effects of disasters on individual survivors.    

  • Discuss setting-specific dimensions of response to community-level crisis or trauma events for social workers. 

Bibliography & References

BIBLIOGRAPHY & REFERENCES

Fothergill, A. and Peek, L. Children of Katrina. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015.  

Geoffrion, S., Goncalves, J., Robichaud, I., Sader, J., Giguère, C.-É., Fortin, M., Lamothe, J., Bernard, P., & Guay, S. (2022). Systematic review and meta-analysis on acute stress disorder: Rates following different types of traumatic events. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 23(1), 213–223. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838020933844  

Hare Bork, R, et al. (2022). Workplace Perceptions and Experiences Related to COVID-19 Response Efforts Among Public Health Workers — Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey, United States, September 2021–January 2022. CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7129a3.htm#suggestedcitation  

Lee, J.Y., Kim, S.W., and Kim, J.M. The Impact of Community Disaster Trauma: A Focus on Emerging Research of PTSD and Other Mental Health Outcomes. Chonnam Med J. 2020 May; 56(2):99-107. doi: 10.4068/cmj.2020.56.2.99. Epub 2020 May 25. PMID: 32509556; PMCID: PMC7250671.  

Myers, D. and Wee, D.F.  Disaster Mental Health Services. New York: Brunner-Routledge, 2005.  

Newnham, E. A., Mergelsberg, E., Chen, Y., Kim, Y., Gibbs, L., Dzidic, P. L., Ishida DaSilva, M., Chan, E., Shimomura, K., Narita, Z., Huang, Z., & Leaning, J. (2022). Long term mental health trajectories after disasters and pandemics: A multilingual systematic review of prevalence, risk and protective factors. Clinical Psychology Review, 97, 102203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2022.102203  

Nicholson, A., Attal-Juncqua, A. and Wollek, S. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: from Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires. Washington DC: The National Academies Press, 2021.  

Norris, F. H., Friedman, M. J., & Watson, P. J. (2002). 60,000 disaster victims speak: Part II. Summary and implications of the disaster mental health research. Psychiatry, 65(3), 240–260. https://doi.org/10.1521/ psyc.65.3.240.20169  

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Disaster Technical Assistance Center. (2023). Supplemental Research Bulletin: Disaster Behavioral Health and Approaches to Community Response and Recovery. https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/dtac-disaster-behavioral-health-approaches-to-community-response-recovery.pdf  

Sadovich, J., and White, J.D. “Human Services in Disasters and Public Health Emergencies: Social Disruption, Individual Empowerment, and Community Resilience.” In Veenema, T.G. Disaster Nursing and Emergency Preparedness for Chemical, Biological, and Radiological Terrorism and Other Hazards, 4th ed. New York: Springer, 2019. 140-147.   

Wizeman, T., Reeve, M. and Altevogt, B.M. Preparedness, Response, and Recovery Considerations for Children and Families. Washington DC: The National Academies Press, 2014.  

Course Completion & CE Information

Category I Maryland BSWE Requirement

The Office of Continuing Professional Education at the University of Maryland School of Social Work is authorized by the Board of Social Work Examiners in Maryland to sponsor social work continuing education programs. This workshop qualifies for 3 Category I Continuing Education Units. The Office of Continuing Professional Education is also authorized by the Maryland Board of Psychologists and the Maryland Board of Professional Counselors to sponsor Category A continuing professional education. 

 

ASWB Information 

University of Maryland School of Social Work Office of Continuing Professional Education, #1611, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 2/11/2024-2/11/2027.  

To receive ACE credit, full attendance is required; no partial credits will be given for partial attendance. 

 

Certificate Access

To access the evaluation and certificate, click on the orange certificate button in your CPE account. Once you complete the evaluation, access to the certificate will be available.  

Live Interactive Webinars (Cat I) and Live Webinars (Cat II) - Allow up to 30 minutes post-training for attendance to be verified, then you will be able to access the evaluation and certificate. 

In Person Trainings - Please allow five (5) business days post-training for attendance to be verified, then you will be able to access the evaluation and certificate. 

 

Please refer to the tab "Live Interactive Webinar Policies & FAQs" for UMSSW Office of CPE policies regarding all live interactive webinar related matters. Contact our office at cpe@ssw.umaryland.edu for more information.  

Evaluation

Participants will have access to the evaluation after attendance has been verified. Evaluations will be available for one (1) week after the workshop has ended.  

After one (1) week, participants will no longer have access to the evaluation and will have to contact CPE about reactivation.

Target Audience

Social Workers, LCPCs, and Psychologists

We welcome anyone interested in the topic!

 

Live Interactive Webinar Platforms

LIVE INTERACTIVE WEBINAR PLATFORMS

The Office of Continuing Professional Education hosts Live Interactive Webinars through Zoom. This platform offers a high quality and user-friendly webinar platform for our registrants.

System Requirements:

  • Operating Systems: Windows XP or higher; MacOS 9 or higher; Android 4.0 or higher.
  • Internet Browser: Google Chrome; Firefox 10.0 or higher.

Our system is not compatible with the Safari web browser.

  • Broadband Internet Connection: Cable, High-speed DSL and any other medium that is internet accessible.

**Please have your device charging at all times to ensure that your device does not lose power during the webinar.

Course Interaction Requirements:

To participate in Live Interactive Webinars, you MUST have a device that allows you to view the presentation on screen and hear the instructor at all times. We do not allow participants to call-in from their phones or mobile devices and solely listen to the presentation. Participation in Live Interactive Webinars is mandatory.

Our webinar policies can be found on our website by clicking here.

Webinar Policies & FAQs

Click The Link to View The Webinar Policies & FAQs

https://umbsswcpe.ce21.com/Page/live-interactive-webinar-procedures-policies-4129

 

 

Code of Conduct

The Office of Continuing Professional Education at the University of Maryland School of Social Work adheres to the NASW Code of Ethics. This policy is to ensure that the training environment for social work professionals remains respectful, productive, and conducive to learning. Disruptive behavior that interferes with the learning process, disrupts the training experience for others, or undermines the integrity of the program will not be tolerated.

 

Expectations for Participant Engagement:

In alignment with the NASW Code of Ethics and the University of Maryland Baltimore Code of Conduct, participants are expected to demonstrate professionalism, which includes respecting confidentiality, maintaining a collaborative and respectful tone, and contributing positively to the group dynamic. Disclosures made during the training (e.g., case studies or personal reflections) must be handled with care and in accordance with ethical and legal guidelines.

All participants in the training program are expected to:

  • Engage actively in the learning process and show respect for the opinions and contributions of others.
  • Demonstrate professionalism in both attitude and behavior, maintaining respect for instructors, peers, and the training environment.
  • Maintain open communication by expressing concerns or disagreements constructively and respectfully.
  • Follow the guidelines and expectations provided by instructors and facilitators.
  • Support a collaborative learning environment where all participants feel valued and safe to contribute.

 

Instructors and CPE staff reserve the right to dismiss participants who do not adhere to ethical/professional principles and standards. If removed, CEs will be adjusted to reflect the time attended, unless otherwise specified. 

ADA Accommodations

If you are requesting ADA accommodations, please contact our office via email at least two weeks prior to the workshop date. Requests after that date may not be fulfilled.  

Our email address is cpe@ssw.umaryland.edu.  

Late Fees and Refunds

The base price is $70, which includes CE credit.  

Late Fee: On 09/12/25, a non-refundable late fee of $20 is added to the base price. Late fees cannot be refunded or applied to account credit.  

Cancellations: **ALL cancellations will be subjected to a $35.00 administration fee.**  To be eligible for a refund or CPE account credit, cancellations must be made at least 24 hours before the workshop. 

For more information, please read the general policies on our website.  

 

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