HHS is the U.S. Government’s principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves.

This article discusses the needs of women during and after disasters and emergencies. The document emphasizes the importance of gender in psychosocial considerations, the crisis phase response to an emergency, the relief phase response to an emergency or disaster, and reconstruction and the development phase following an emergency or disaster. [Authors: Wiest, R. E., Mocellin, J. S. P., and Motsisi, D. T.]

This section of the Suicide Prevention Resource Center website features information for people who work with American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) individuals and communities. It presents basic information about the issue of suicide among AI/AN people, tools to begin to address the issue, best practices in suicide prevention and health promotion in Native communities, and links to a wide range of resources.

This guide discusses culture in general and American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) cultures specifically, highlights risk and protective factors associated with AI/AN cultures, and offers guidance to AI/AN communities in preventing suicide. Tools for community suicide prevention and assessment of risk and protective factors are included in the guide.

This website compiles resources for disaster responders from various disciplines on providing culturally competent suicide prevention and intervention services. The linked manuals and reports provide information on a broad range of topics in cultural competence in programs, practices, and services to prevent suicide and provide support to people with suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

The Code Green Campaign is an organization focusing on first responders and their mental health. Their goal is to raise awareness of the high mental illness rates among first responders, and to provide education for first responders on a variety of topics. Their website links to several resources and trainings for first responders to learn more about taking care of their mental health.

This web page provides information about the importance of considering culture as part of school-based response to crises, including disasters. It provides strategies for developing a culturally competent crisis plan and providing culturally and linguistically competent services. It also describes the role of crisis response teams and why it is important to include cultural brokers in crisis response planning and implementation.

This web page describes the importance of cultural awareness when providing services for children, families, and communities that have experienced trauma. It provides an introduction to the topic and links to several resources related to trauma and culture.

This half-hour webcast helps disaster behavioral health professionals learn about working with American Indian and Alaska Native populations before, during, and after a disaster or other traumatic event. It helps provide an understanding of cultural values shared by Native Americans, and how to work with tribes to understand their perspectives and experiences.

This tip sheet notes the diversity of Native American cultures in the United States, presents some general commonalities across many Native American cultures and societies, explains historical trauma and how tribes may think about and respond to disasters, and suggests ways to support tribal communities that have experienced disasters. References and related resources are listed.

Developed by the SAMHSA Tribal Training and Technical Assistance Center, this fact sheet gives individuals and programs who may work with American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities a better understanding of mental health in these communities. It discusses the history of trauma in tribal communities, as well as perceptions of mental health and illness among AI/AN communities that differ in some ways from European American perceptions.

This 90-minute webinar introduces the concepts of white privilege and of microaggressions, which are defined as hostile or negative racial slights or insults that are brief and daily, verbal or behavioral, and which may be intentional or unintentional. The webinar also discusses the traumatic impact of Hurricane Katrina on families, particularly African American families, as well as cultural competence versus cultural humility.

This 75-minute webinar focuses on cultural sensitivity and race and how both affect research on posttraumatic stress disorder in children. These issues are explored in relation to research on Hurricane Katrina and African Americans.

In this article, researchers describe their work to involve children in emergency management to ensure culturally sensitive disaster programming and better policy. They describe how they have involved children of many cultures in creative projects, which were used to convey key insights to policymakers and inform more culturally aware and sensitive policy development.

This hour-long webcast provides information for disaster behavioral health professionals about providing culturally appropriate services for children and families affected by disasters. It also describes disaster reactions children and youth might experience and how to support children after disasters.

This article reviews advances that have been made in research and experience after 9/11 that have led to the development of evidence-based and evidence-informed guidelines and strategies to support the design and implementation of public mental health programs after terrorism and disaster. [Authors: Watson, P.J., Brymer, M. J., and Bonanno, G. A.]

The guide was adapted from the Psychological First Aid Operations Guide (2nd Edition), with permission from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and the National Center for PTSD.

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 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 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.