This recorded webcast describes an incident involving a person in Texas who was experiencing homelessness when he got sick with Ebola virus disease in 2014. The webcast features firsthand experiences, lessons learned, and best practices for disaster behavioral health services in relation to Ebola and other public health emergencies.

Part of SAMHSA’s Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) series, this manual provides best-practice guidelines for practitioners offering mental health and substance use disorder treatment services to individuals experiencing homelessness. It defines types of intervention and prevention, stages of recovery, and forms of treatment through discussion and vignettes, as well as a literature review.

The National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians offers this collection of resources for emergency medical services (EMS) personnel to help them understand and manage their own work-related stressors and mental health and support the individuals they serve. The collection includes articles, research, online information, and hotlines.

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.

The Headington Institute offers a variety of trainings, educational materials, and counseling and consultation services for humanitarian relief and development workers and emergency responders. It does work to support the well-being of responders and response organizations and the effectiveness of response efforts.

This online brochure provides physical and psychological safety tips for disaster responders. The brochure notes that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Resilience and Mental Health Team supported development of this resource. A section of the brochure describes resilience to stress, lists signs of stress, and suggests ways to build resilience.

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 tip sheet describes aspects of the transition families go through when a member returns home after a disaster deployment. It also suggests ways that family members other than the responder can navigate the transition and support the responder in coping with the return home.

This part of the SAMHSA Disaster Technical Assistance Center (DTAC) website explains that responders face heightened risk of mental illness and substance use disorders due to the nature of their work. It identifies signs of stress; ways to manage stress; and related resources from SAMHSA DTAC, including online trainings, webcasts, and tip sheets.

This tip sheet describes grief and the grieving process, both of which are often associated with disasters. It suggests ways to support survivors, as well as highlighting signs of complicated or traumatic grief or other grief that may require professional mental health care.

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 website provides information about trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for a variety of audiences.

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.

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 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.

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.

These SAMHSA Disaster Behavioral Health Information Series resources are in one of eight languages other than English. Disaster behavioral health professionals can use these resources to reach individuals in disaster-affected communities who read and speak Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, French, and several other languages.

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 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.