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.
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
CAPT Jonathan White, PhD, LCSW-C, CPH (he/him), is an officer in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, a clinical social worker, and an emergency manager specializing in the needs of children and vulnerable populations in crisis events.
He serves in the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), US Department of Health and Human Services, where he is 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 serves 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. 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, is a Maryland Board-approved supervisor, and is a NBPHE-Certified Public Health professional. He has deployed or held national-level leadership roles in over seventy domestic disaster, public health emergency, unaccompanied children influx, and programmatic 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:
12:50 – 1:00 pm Log on
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
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Introduction (5 minutes)
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Defining disaster (10 minutes)
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Natural disasters: what they are and how they impact survivors (15 minutes)
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Technological disasters: what they are and how they impact survivors (15 minutes)
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Intentional disasters (incidents of mass violence and terrorism) : what they are and how they impact survivors (15 minutes)
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Public health emergencies (including pandemics) : what they are and how they impact survivors (15 minutes)
2:30 pm – 2:45 pm Break
2:45 pm – 4:15 pm
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Population-level crisis vs. individual-level crisis: common elements and crucial differences (10 minutes)
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Disasters and pre-event disparities (10 minutes)
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Disaster impacts across the lifespan (15 minutes)
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What social workers can do for clients and communities (45 minutes)
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Last questions and wrap-up (10 minutes)
4:15 pm Adjournment
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Upon the completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:
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Differentiate the four types of disaster events and the psychosocial consequences of each.
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Describe developmentally and age-specific effects of disasters on individual survivors.
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Articulate setting-specific dimensions of response to community-level crisis or trauma events for social workers in behavioral health care, schools, human services providers, and domestic violence programs.
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.
Target Audience
Social Workers, LCPCs, and Psychologists
We welcome anyone interested in the topic!
Late Fees and Refunds
The base price is $70, which includes CE credit.
Late Fee: On 04/03/2025, 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.
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.
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.
