SAMHSA Coping with Disasters and Traumatic Events

Disaster Distress Helpline
General Tornado Response Resources
Resources Focused on Children
Resources Focused on Older Adults
Resources Focused on People with Disabilities
Resources for Self-Care for Disaster Responders
Additional Resources
Recommended Websites

Disaster Distress Help Line

A disaster such as this is unexpected and often brings out strong emotions. The toll-free Disaster Distress Helpline (1-800-985-5990) is staffed 24/7 by trained and caring professionals from crisis counseling centers in the network who can provide immediate counseling to anyone needing help in dealing with the aftermath of this tragedy. This free, confidential, and multilingual crisis support service is also available via SMS (text TalkWithUs to 66746). The Helpline staff provide confidential counseling, referrals, and other support services.

General Tornado Response Resources

Be Red Cross Ready: Taking Care of Your Emotional Health After a Disaster - This fact sheet from the American Red Cross explains normal reactions to a disaster, what a survivor should do to cope, and where to seek additional help if needed.

Managing Traumatic Stress: After the Tornadoes - This web page from the American Psychological Association offers information for the general public regarding managing traumatic stress after a tornado.

Mass Disasters, Trauma, and Loss - This fact sheet from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies includes information on common stress reactions to mass disaster, trauma, and loss. It explains how to minimize these reactions and when to seek professional help.

Psychological First Aid (PFA) — The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) and the National Center for PTSD provide an evidence-informed approach for assisting children, adolescents, adults, and families in the aftermath of disasters and terrorism. The manual includes handouts and tips for survivors and providers and can be downloaded in English, Spanish, Japanese, or Chinese.

PFA Online - According to its online description, PFA Online is an "interactive course that puts the participant in the role of a provider in a post-disaster scene. It features innovative activities, video demonstrations, and mentor tips from the nation's trauma experts and survivors."

PFA Online for Schools

PFA (above) is also available as a mobile app (downloadable on ITunes)

Reactions to a Major Disaster: A Fact Sheet for Survivors and their Families - This handout from the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress provides information about normal stress reactions, other mental health problems that commonly occur following a disaster, and the recovery process.

SAMHSA Disaster Kit - This kit contains psychoeducational materials to help guide effective response during and after a disaster. Materials also deal with workplace stress and can be used to educate the general public on disaster concerns. Kits can be ordered from the SAMHSA Store by calling 1-877-SAMHSA7 (1-877-726-4727) or the materials can be downloaded electronically.

Disaster Tips Wallet Card: Having Trouble Coping? (English)- This wallet card provides a list of warning signs describing when someone might be having trouble coping with a traumatic event. Contact information for the Disaster Distress Helpline (1-800-985-5990) is provided. Disaster Tips Wallet Card: Having Trouble Coping? (Español)

Helping students cope with media coverage of disasters: A fact sheet for teachers and school staff - According to this fact sheet, it "provides an overview of how media coverage of a disaster may affect students and suggests strategies that people working in schools can use to address these effects. The strategies described in this fact sheet can be used by teachers, school counselors, school social workers, other school staff members, and school administrators.

Tips for College Students: In the Wake of Trauma - This tip sheet provides information for college aged students about some of the common reactions to traumatic events and ways to help them cope. It also provides helpful resources and hotline information.

Resources Focused on Children

Childhood Traumatic Grief Educational Materials for Parents (English) - These factsheets from NCTSN describe childhood traumatic grief, how it differs from other kinds of grief, common signs and other tips for parents. It is available in English and Spanish.

In Spanish: Childhood Traumatic Grief Educational Materials for Parents (Español)

Helping Children and Youth Cope in the Aftermath of Disasters: Tips for Parents and Other Caregivers, Teachers, Administrators, and School Staff Podcast - The goal of this 50-minute podcast is to help parents, caregivers, teachers, and other schools staff to identify common reactions of children and youth to disaster and trauma, and discover helpful approaches to support immediate and long-term recovery.

NCTSN Factsheets for parents, teachers, children, and teens - This selection of factsheets from NCTSN identify common reactions among children and teens, and provide guidelines for parents for helping children and teens recovery from the traumatic effects of a tornado.

After the Tornado: Helping Young Children Heal

En Español [Después de Pasar por La Experiencia de Un Tornado]

Parent Guidelines for Helping Children after a Tornado

Questions To Ask Your Children About the Tornado

Teacher Guidelines for Helping Students after a Tornado

Tornado Response for Kids: Right after a Tornado

Tornado Recovery for Kids: Making Things Better

Tornado Response for Teens: Right after a Tornado

Tornado Recovery for Teens: Making Things Better

Tips for Parents on Media Coverage of the Tornadoes

Recovery After a Tornado - The National Center for Traumatic Stress Network has a tornado recovery page with information about the impact that tornadoes can have on children. A series of fact sheets and tips for parents on how to help children and teens cope with emotional reactions following a tornado are included under the "Recovery" tab.

Secondary Traumatic Stress: A fact Sheet for Child-Serving Professionals - This fact sheet from NCTSN provides an overview of secondary traumatic stress and its potential impact on professionals who work with children. Also described are options for assessment, prevention, and interventions as well as factors that can enhance resilience.

Tips for Talking to Children and Youth After Traumatic Events: A Guide for Parents and Educators - This tip sheet for parents and teachers explains how to help children cope with the emotional aftermath of a disaster and includes information on common reactions according to developmental stage.

Coping with Crisis—Helping Children With Special Needs - This website provides information on how children with learning differences cope with tragedy and grief. The website also provides recommendations on additional considerations to be addressed for children with special needs.

Listen, Protect, Connect – Model and Teach: Psychological First Aid for Teacher and Students - This guidance helps parents to assess a child's firsthand experience of a disaster and describes some common reactions the child may have later. It describes how parents can provide Psychological First Aid by listening, protecting, and connecting. It also provides tips to keep in mind as one helps a child following a disaster.

Parent Tips for Infants and Toddlers (English) [PDF | 56KB} - This document offers a grid to help parents with infants and toddlers understand how their child may be feeling—it also offers an in-depth list of how parents can help their young children cope with disaster.
Chinese [PDF | 949 KB] | Japanese [PDF | 24 6KB] | Spanish [PDF | 406 KB]

Parent Tips for Preschoolers (English) [PDF | 56KB} - This document provides information for parents including reactions and/or behavior that may occur after a disaster including suggestions for what to say and do once the disaster is over.
Chinese [PDF | 625 KB] | Japanese [PDF | 230 KB] | Spanish [PDF | 291 KB]

Parent Tips for School-age Children (English) [PDF | 238 KB] - This document offers information on common reactions after a disaster and how parents can respond to their school-age children.
Chinese [PDF | 623 KB] | Japanese [PDF | 230 KB] | Spanish [PDF | 292 KB]

Parent Tips for Adolescents (English) [PDF | 237 KB] - This document provides parents with tips for how to respond to their adolescent child after a disaster. The tips include possible reactions, responses, and examples of things to do and say.
Chinese [PDF | 617 KB] | Japanese [PDF | 290 KB] | Spanish [PDF | 290 KB]

Tips for Talking With and Helping Children and Youth Cope After a Disaster or Traumatic Event: A Guide for Parents, Caregivers, and Teachers - This tip sheet helps parents, caregivers, and teachers to recognize and address stress responses in children and youth affected by traumatic events such as automobile accidents and disasters. It describes stress reactions that are commonly seen in young trauma survivors from various age groups and offers tips on how to help as well as resources.

Tips for Talking to Children: Interventions At Home for Preschoolers to Adolescents - This tip sheet provides recommendations to help children share feelings and experiences following exposure to a disaster or traumatic event. Interventions for parents are provided to help them engage with preschoolers, elementary age children, preadolescents and adolescents.

Resources Focused on Older Adults

Older Adults and Disaster: Preparedness and Response - This guide created by the Geriatric Mental Health Foundation helps older adults, their family members, and their caregivers prepare for and respond to disasters. The webpage describes who is most vulnerable, lists actions that can be taken before and after a disaster strikes, and provides a list of resources for additional support.

Psychosocial Issues for Older Adults in Disasters - The authors define "elderly" and explore the nature of disasters and older adults’ reactions to them. They also provide mental health professionals, emergency response workers, and caregivers tools to provide disaster mental health and recovery support to older adults.

What you Need to Know About...Helping the Elderly Recover from the Emotional Aftermath of a Disaster - This one-page fact sheet lists common reactions older adults may have after a disaster and warning signs that someone may need extra help, as well as strategies to help older adults with their special needs.

Resources Focused on People with Disabilities

Disabled People and Disaster Planning - This website provides recommendations to reduce or eliminate the barriers to access that many people with disabilities experience after disasters.

Individuals with Access and Functional Needs - This website was developed by the Department of Homeland Security in consultation with AARP, the American Red Cross, and the National Organization on Disability. It provides recommendations for creating an emergency supply kit for people with disabilities.

Resources for Self-Care for Disaster Responders

Tips for First Responders - This 28-page booklet provides tips for responders to consider during emergencies and routine encounters that can help accommodate and communicate with people with disabilities. Separate sections address populations including seniors; people with service animals, autism, multiple chemical sensitivities, or cognitive disabilities; and people who are hearing or visually impaired.

A Guide to Managing Stress in Crisis Response Professions - This manual aids crisis response workers in stress prevention and management before, during, and after a public health crisis. It describes the stress cycle and common stress reactions and offers tips to promote a positive workplace and to monitor and minimize stress.

Guidelines for Working with First Responders (Firefighters, Police, Emergency Medical Service and Military) in the Aftermath of Disaster - This online tip sheet lists common characteristics of disaster responders, suggests interventions for working with disaster responders, and provides additional resources in working with this population.

Self-Care for Disaster Behavioral Health Responders Podcast - The goal of this recently released 60-minute SAMHSA DTAC podcast is to provide information, best practices, and tools that enable disaster behavioral health responders and supervisors to identify and effectively manage stress and secondary traumatic stress through workplace structures and self-care practices.

A transcript of the podcast is located at: http://www.samhsa.gov/dtac/selfcareDBHResponders/selfcareDBHResponders-transcript.pdf.

Tips for Managing and Preventing Stress: A Guide for Emergency Response and Public Safety Workers - This fact sheet gives organizational and individual tips for stress prevention and management for emergency response workers and public safety workers. It describes normal reactions to a disaster, signs of the need for stress management, and ways to handle stress.

Grief Leadership: Leadership in the Wake of Tragedy - This tip sheet from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress provides guidance to help leaders understand their role in an individual’s or community’s recovery following a tragedy. This resource provides guidance to leaders for communicating effectively in the immediate aftermath of a tragedy, as well as throughout the recovery process and describes common symptoms of grief to help in managing expectations and planning recovery activities.

Children and Youth - SAMHSA Disaster Behavioral Health Information Series Installment - This SAMHSA Disaster Behavioral Health Information Series installment focuses on the reactions and mental health needs of children and youth after a disaster and contains resources from both the child trauma and disaster behavioral health fields. The collection includes an annotated bibliography and a section with helpful links to organizations, agencies, and other resources that address disaster preparedness and response issues surrounding children and youth.

Crisis Preparedness, Response, and Recovery Resource Center - This website offers community members, educators, and health workers online resources for how to recognize the warning signs of stress, coping with stress, and how to develop resiliency in children.

Cultural Awareness: Children and Youth in Disasters Podcast - The goal of this 60-minute podcast is to assist disaster behavioral health responders in providing culturally aware and appropriate disaster behavioral health services for children, youth, and families impacted by natural and human-caused disasters. Featured speakers include April Naturale, Ph.D., of SAMHSA DTAC and Russell T. Jones, Ph.D., of Virginia Tech University.

Guide for Emergency Response and Public Safety Workers: Tips for Managing and Preventing Stress - This fact sheet presents organizational and individual stress prevention and management approaches for disaster response workers.

Helpful Hints for School Emergency Management: Psychological First Aid (PFA) for Students and Teachers: Listen, Protect, Connect – Model & Teach - This document explores the goals of the PFA strategy and when and how schools can implement it. It also reviews the type of training school staff members need to effectively use this strategy.

Field Manual for Mental Health and Human Service Workers in Major Disasters - This Field Manual is intended for mental health workers and other human service providers who assist survivors following a disaster. This pocket reference provides the basics of disaster mental health, with numerous specific and practical suggestions for workers. Essential information about disaster survivors' reactions and needs is included. "Helping" skills are described with guidance for when to refer for professional assistance. Strategies for worker stress prevention and management are presented in the last section.

Psychological First Aid for Schools—Field Operations Guide - This guide provides the details of Psychological First Aid, which is, according to the NCTSN website, "an evidence-informed approach for assisting children, adolescents, adults, and families in the aftermath of disaster and terrorism."

Psychosocial Issues For Children And Families In Disasters - This booklet includes resources for people working with children after a disaster. It covers child development theories in relation to how youth respond emotionally to disasters. It also features suggestions, case studies, and a resource guide.

Self-Care for Disaster Behavioral Health Responders Podcast Transcript - SAMHSA DTAC recently released a Self-Care for Disaster Behavioral Health Responders Podcast. The goal of this 60-minute podcast is to provide information, best practices, and tools that enable disaster behavioral health (DBH) responders and supervisors to identify and effectively manage stress and secondary traumatic stress through workplace structures and self-care practices.

Tips for Emergency and Disaster Response Workers: Possible Alcohol and Substance Abuse Indicators - This tip sheet describes indicators or warning signs disaster responders should look for that are often associated with alcohol and drug addiction. These tips will be useful for public safety workers in determining if disaster survivors are in need of referral to behavioral health assistance.

Additional Resources

Tips on Media Coverage

Helping your child cope with media coverage of disasters: A fact sheet for parents - According to the document, this fact sheet "provides an overview of how media coverage of a disaster may affect your child and suggests strategies that parents can use to address these effects.

Tips for Parents on Media Coverage - This tip sheet provides information for parents on how to limit a child's exposure to disturbing media images.

Coping with Grief

After a loved one dies - how children grieve; And how parents and other adults can support them - This 26-page booklet is for parents and other adults to help children who have suffered the loss of a parent or loved one to get through their grief.

How to Deal With Grief - This fact sheet explains how to deal with grief as a normal response to loss or death. It describes how grief feels, how long it lasts, the four-step grieving process, and how grief differs from depression.

It's okay to remember - This video provides information regarding traumatic grief in children, addresses the three main types of trauma reminders, and illustrates how families can experience the pain of loss and then heal. It features physicians and experts in the field and is appropriate for parents and others who care for children.

Talk, listen, connect: When families grieve - This collection of resources addresses the difficult topic of the death of a parent and helps families cope with complex emotions, honor the life of a loved one, and find strength in each other. There are components for military families and nonmilitary families.

Coping with Traumatic Stress

Understanding child traumatic stress - This document discusses the cognitive response to danger as it relates to traumatic experiences or traumatic stress throughout all developmental stages, particularly in children. It provides an overview of posttraumatic stress responses and their severity and duration, as well as posttraumatic stress after chronic or repeated trauma.

Coping with Stress - This webpage from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides clear concise information on coping with stress related to a traumatic event.

Dealing with the Effects of Trauma: A Self-Help Guide - This SAMHSA guide provides more in-depth information on recovering from a traumatic event and is geared for those whose reactions may be lingering.

Responding to Stressful Events: Helping Children Cope - This packet contains information on helping children cope after a stressful event. It provides information on common reactions and coping techniques.

Responding to a School in Crisis - This guide is a resource for key school personnel responding to school based events.

Tips for Survivors of a Traumatic Event: Managing Your Stress - This tip sheet outlines the common signs of stress after a disaster and provides stress reduction strategies.

Tips for Survivors of Traumatic Events: Self-Care Tips for Dealing with Stress - This fact sheet includes care tips for survivors of a traumatic event, what to expect in your personal, family, work, and financial life.

Listen, Protect, and Connect - Family to Family, Neighbor to Neighbor - This brochure suggests ways to support emotional well-being before, during and after emergencies. They build on ideas, strengths and practices that parents, teachers and schools already use with children, and offer more ideas and tools to call upon in times of traumatic events.

Recommended Websites

SAMHSA Disaster Technical Assistance Center
The Disaster Technical Assistance Center (DTAC) supports SAMHSA’s efforts to prepare states, territories, and local entities to deliver an effective behavioral health response during disasters. We support collaboration between mental health and substance abuse authorities, federal agencies, and nongovernmental organizations. The SAMHSA DTAC provides consultation to review disaster plans, conducts literature reviews, and brokers knowledge and support.

The National Child Traumatic Stress Network
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network was established to improve access to care, treatment, and services for traumatized children and adolescents exposed to traumatic events.