This tip sheet lists reactions to stress that are common among children and that caregivers, parents, and teachers may see during and after an infectious disease outbreak. It also suggests ways that adults can help children manage stress.

Developed by the World Health Organization, the AUDIT is a brief (10-item) screening tool that primary care practitioners, healthcare paraprofessionals, and individuals can use to screen others, or themselves, for problematic alcohol use. The AUDIT is provided in both interview and self-report versions and includes illustrations and measures of standard drinks.

This toolkit helps service providers for the aging learn more about mental illness and substance use disorders in older adults, including focus on alcohol and medication use. It provides tools such as a program coordinator’s guide, suggested curricula, and handouts.

This issue of The Dialogue, SAMHSA DTAC’s quarterly newsletter, features articles about the response to Ebola in Africa, including measures taken to support responders during and after their work. It also covers the experience of a provider who helped with part of the response to Ebola in Dallas, Texas, when he and others were challenged with supporting the quarantine of an individual who had been exposed to Ebola and was homeless.

This guide was developed to assist institutions of higher education in creating and updating emergency plans that are responsive to active shooter situations, as well as natural disasters. This resource was jointly developed by the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Education, and Health and Human Services so that campus communities can align their emergency planning practices with those at the national, state, and local levels.

Designed as a peer education effort for firefighters, this website features videos in which firefighters, fire chiefs, and captains talk about stress and trauma that may be involved in work as a firefighter, as well as experiences of seeking and taking part in treatment. Firefighters Helping Firefighters was created in partnership with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and with funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Although the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health developed this web page in response to 2017 hurricanes that hit the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, the page provides information relevant to any responder deployed to support communities after hurricanes and floods. The page provides information about stress and coping, and links are provided to resources for more information.

This 2-hour online course covers stress management for first responders—including stress they experience in the field as they assist others as well as the stress people they help may be experiencing due to a disaster. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Public Health Training Network also contributed to the production of this course.

This 30-minute training is intended for emergency responders who work shifts longer than normal work hours. It gives an overview of how long hours can affect an individual’s health and provides tips for taking care of yourself during active duty.

This free online course is designed to prepare first responders and others to maintain psychological health during and after emergency response to serve others more effectively. The course defines and describes stress, explains potential effects of work with survivors, and offers tools and tips for managing stress. Although the course is offered free of charge, registration with the CoursePlus website is required to complete it.

This 60-minute webcast identifies types and sources of stress that disaster behavioral health responders may face, as well as methods of self-care. It also covers ways that supervisors and managers of disaster behavioral health responders can support their teams in coping with stress.

This website offers information for prehospital patient care, providing resources for emergency medical service personnel to help them do their jobs better and more safely. The site features information about training, as well as news articles about major emergencies, medical issues, and administrative and leadership topics.

The ProQOL is a commonly used measure of the negative and positive effects of helping others who have experienced suffering and trauma, including disaster survivors. The ProQOL has sub-scales for compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress.

This guide offers information and suggestions to help emergency managers, planners, and responders include individuals with disabilities in disaster planning and preparedness, response, and recovery.

Offered through the website Coursera, this 7-hour course introduces students to the RAPID model of Psychological First Aid (Reflective Listening, Assessment of Needs, Prioritization, Intervention, and Disposition). While students must pay to receive a certificate of course completion, they can take the course free of charge without receiving a certificate (though site registration is required).

This toolkit was developed based on recommendations from the National Consensus Panel on Emergency Preparedness and Cultural Diversity. Sections of the toolkit cover identifying community needs and assets, building community partnerships, and capacity building for culturally and linguistically appropriate services.

Developed for emergency preparedness and response professionals, this guide explains how to incorporate language access into emergency plans. It discusses how to identify groups of people who speak specific languages and to ensure that individuals in these groups have access to services. The guide is designed to help professionals comply with legal requirements for meaningful access to services for people with limited English proficiency.

This tip sheet explains how families are typically notified after a disaster that their relatives are missing or deceased, and it emphasizes the importance of working with local authorities on notification of families in a sensitive, appropriate way. It offers do’s and don’ts for disaster responders helping local and national authorities make families aware that their relatives are missing or dead following a disaster.

This tip sheet provides guidance on communicating with the media for responders serving communities affected by disasters that involved the death of many people. The tip sheet emphasizes the importance of preparation and of identifying a set number of people who will provide information to the media. It also offers tips specifically for media interviews.

Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and Android devices, this app is designed to support responders in meeting the mental health and substance use-related needs of disaster-affected communities. It can be used to access preparedness and response resources and find local mental health and substance use disorder treatment services for referrals.

The SAMHSA Disaster Distress Helpline is a 24-hour helpline staffed by trained counselors. The helpline can be used by any person, including a first responder, who is experiencing emotional distress due to a disaster. Responders may also want to make disaster survivors aware of this resource.

This free, 1-hour online course for fire and emergency medical services (EMS) personnel provides information on stressors and mental health and substance use issues and conditions that are more common in fire and EMS. It also covers techniques for healthy coping and stress management. The course is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Pre-hospital Continuing Education for continuing education credit.

This web page provides information for people who are traveling out of the United States to support individuals and communities, including those that have been affected by disasters. It suggests steps for humanitarian aid workers to take before, during, and after travel to protect their physical and mental health.

This web page includes links to resources for healthcare professionals, leaders, and others responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. It features fact sheets on healthcare worker self-care and stress management and on leading teams as they respond to the pandemic, as well as webinars, websites, and publications on disaster behavioral health, Psychological First Aid, sleep health, and fostering team resilience.

The ERHMS™ framework provides ideas for protecting disaster and emergency responders in an emergency of any size and in any setting. Designed for incident command staff members, leaders in response organizations, healthcare professionals, and responders themselves, the framework can be used to develop and implement a plan for monitoring and surveillance of responder health before, during, and after deployment.