Created for disaster response workers, this fact sheet provides guidance for preventing and managing stress before, during, and after a disaster response assignment. It explores signs of stress and highlights tips individuals can use throughout disaster response and recovery to increase resilience.

This online resource from SAMHSA allows users to search for mental illness and substance use disorder treatment services in their area. First responders may find it useful in finding services for themselves or their coworkers or in referring individuals to treatment. Searches can be limited by state, county, and distance from a specific location.

This toolkit explores the importance of self-care and resilience building for professionals in health care and mental health and substance use disorder treatment fields during the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides a case scenario for participants to identify signs of stress and highlights strategies for developing a mental health and wellness plan.

This resource collection includes materials to help both mental health treatment professionals and first responders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Resources address helping individuals manage stress during the pandemic, self-care, and approaches to assistance such as Psychological First Aid.

This online resource notes the importance of resilience in coping with the stress of disaster response. It defines and describes individual resilience and lists ways for responders to build resilience before, during, and after deployment.

Created for healthcare workers and service providers, the Adult Resilience Curriculum (ARC) is a research-based approach to address stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue for this population during the COVID-19 pandemic. This toolkit features 10 modules for implementing self-care at the individual and organizational level, as well as a podcast and interactive workbook.

This tip sheet identifies challenges in serving as a healthcare professional after a disaster and suggests ways to cope. It highlights common reactions to stressors involved in providing health care in a disaster setting, as well as ideas for managing stress and challenging emotions while providing healthcare services to disaster survivors.

This fact sheet explores the challenges facing healthcare workers during infectious disease outbreaks and provide strategies for ensuring self-care and well-being. It includes a list of stress management tips, such as taking breaks from work and communicating with colleagues, to avoid burnout and build resilience while providing services.

This page from the SAMHSA Disaster Technical Assistance Center emphasizes the importance of stress management for responders so they can stay fit to serve disaster-affected communities. The page presents key concepts of disaster behavioral health, encourages responders to deploy as part of an integrated response system and team, and highlights training available to prepare for deployment.

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 free, on-demand online course describes Stress First Aid and prepares fire, emergency medical services, and rescue personnel to use this technique, which includes several actions responders can use to manage stress for themselves and their teams. While the course is available free of charge, people need to set up a free account with the Fire Hero Learning Network website to access it.

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 tip sheet describes some of the challenges involved in disaster response work and how these challenges may make responders more vulnerable to substance misuse. It lists signs of substance misuse, suggests ways to address substance misuse issues in yourself or someone you care about, and identifies resources for additional support.

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 tip sheet suggests ways for disaster responders to manage the transition back to work after deployment for a response effort. It identifies ways to bolster personal resilience and address issues that responders commonly encounter when returning to work, and it presents signs of the need for additional support related to mental health or substance use.

This toolkit provides police officers with information and tools for practicing self-care. It utilizes several models to give police officers a background and understanding of posttraumatic stress disorder and ways to manage its symptoms.

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.

An organization with more than 65,000 members, the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT) represents paramedics, emergency medical technicians, emergency medical responders, and other emergency medical services (EMS) professionals. NAEMT provides education for EMS professionals, supports research and innovation in EMS, and does work to improve both patient care and work environments for EMS professionals.

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 tip sheet describes compassion fatigue and its components, burnout and secondary traumatic stress. It offers tips for coping with compassion fatigue, and it also describes compassion satisfaction and notes ways to foster compassion satisfaction among members of your response team.

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.