This guide provides information about drought as it affects the health of the U.S. public. Behavioral health-related information is discussed in various sections of this document, particularly beginning on page 27.

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 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.

This 41-page manual for first responders and other disaster responders gives information on how to include communities it collectively refers to as newcomers—immigrants, refugees, migrants, asylum seekers, and unaccompanied children—in disaster planning, response, and recovery. It describes unique qualities of newcomer communities; recommendations; and tools to support disaster planning, response, and recovery that includes newcomers.

This webcast, which runs for about an hour, provides information that can be used to assess and strengthen cultural awareness practices in disaster behavioral health programs and services. The webcast provides guiding principles for cultural awareness and discusses lessons learned from past disaster behavioral health programs.

This double issue of "The Dialogue," the SAMHSA Disaster Technical Assistance Center’s quarterly newsletter, focuses on cultural sensitivity in disaster behavioral health programs. The contributors to this newsletter discuss implementing disaster behavioral health programs in various communities. Contributors also share tips and information on how to work with different populations.

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.

This toolkit is designed to support delivery of a training for mental health and other professionals on supporting children with intellectual and developmental disabilities in coping with and recovering from trauma. The curriculum covers the definition of intellectual and developmental disabilities, how intellectual and developmental disabilities and trauma can delay development in children, and ways to work with children and their families.

This hour-long webinar discusses why cultural competence matters in disasters. It also covers potential consequences of lack of cultural competence in post-disaster services and provides resources to help enhance understanding of cultural competence.

This manual lists guiding principles for providing culturally competent disaster mental health services, and recommendations for work toward achievement of the principles. It provides background information on culture, cultural competence, and disaster behavioral health; information and resources; and suggestions for working with refugees and interpreters.

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.

This web-based library of resources focuses on disaster preparedness for culturally diverse populations. The website contains planning tools, fact sheets, trainings, and other materials that public health, healthcare, emergency management, and social services providers can use in developing culturally competent disaster plans.

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 set of online courses helps disaster responders and other disaster behavioral health professionals deliver culturally and linguistically competent services before, during, and after disasters. Users can register to participate in the curriculum for free, and they can receive continuing education credits upon completion.

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.

Designed for a range of types of disaster responders, this pocket guide describes the cycle of stress in the body and highlights signs of stress. It also presents tips for managers to prevent and manage stress for themselves and their workers during disaster response, as well as offering simple, practical stress management techniques for responders.

Provided for healthcare professionals and others responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, this hour-long webinar recording defines burnout, compassion fatigue, moral injury, and resilience; explains the typical timeline of reactions to disasters; and discusses crisis standards of care. It also covers ways to manage burnout, compassion fatigue, and moral injury, and to increase personal and organizational resilience.

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.

At this web page, the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies presents a range of resources for learning about and coping with stressors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. A section for healthcare workers, a key group of first responders in the pandemic, features webinars, tip sheets, and articles on topics including coping with pandemic-related stress, self-care, and strategies for resilience.

This page shares five elements that are related to better early- and mid-term recovery after disasters, including promoting a sense of psychological safety, promoting calming, and instilling hope. It also discusses Psychological First Aid (PFA), an evidence-informed, modular approach for helping disaster survivors, and explains how PFA can be used to reduce distress through eight core actions.

This page discusses ways that disaster responders and mental health treatment professionals can help survivors of disasters in the weeks or months following the disaster. The page suggests ways to reach the full community of survivors and describes Skills for Psychological Recovery, an intervention designed to be used after Psychological First Aid has been used in the immediate aftermath of a disaster.

This online fact sheet provides information about five key elements of cultural competence related to disaster preparedness, as well as examples of each element. This information can help increase cultural awareness and knowledge for disaster responders that they can use to adapt to, and serve effectively in, different cultural contexts. Links to resources for additional information are also provided.

This toolkit provides guidance for building an inclusive emergency management system and highlights the importance of collaboration between and among healthcare professionals, emergency managers and public health officials, and professionals who provide services to individuals experiencing homelessness. It offers resources and strategies for addressing the needs of people experiencing homelessness during disasters.

This guide for public officials presents the basic components of effective communication during a crisis. Topics covered include guidance for communicating complex, scientific, or technical information; working with mainstream and social media; and presenting information to the public.

This web page shares examples of messaging that disaster behavioral health programs can use during a disaster, including blogs, public service announcements, program websites, and social media. In addition to tips for writing messages for different methods of communication, the page also has links to examples.