This section of the website of the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is for professional researchers, mental health treatment practitioners, and others who focus in their work on helping people cope with trauma. The website brings together free, in-depth continuing education courses with topics ranging from PTSD in older adulthood to cross-cultural considerations to suicidality to resilience.

Funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and administered by SAMHSA, the CCP is a supplemental grant program to help states, territories, and federally recognized tribes affected by major disasters to address the mental health and substance use-related needs of their residents. The CCP has several required trainings.

Designed for first responders, disaster responders, emergency managers, mental healthcare practitioners, and others, this curriculum helps those supporting disaster-affected communities to provide services that are appropriate and effective for people of all cultures.

This 2-hour training describes the stressors that response work may involve and possible consequences of stress. It equips responders with an arsenal of techniques for addressing and managing stress and heightening the ability to cope with challenges.

Designed for public health workers including mental and substance use disorder providers and practitioners, healthcare providers and practitioners, first responders, and emergency planners, this 1-hour training provides an overview of the psychological challenges communities may face after a disaster.

This 1-hour course provides general knowledge of how disaster affects children and adolescents. The course also emphasizes skills such as administering Psychological First Aid to children in the aftermath of a disaster and screening them for mental disorders in the months that follow. The course is provided through Prepare Iowa, a partnership of the Iowa Department of Public Health and the University of Iowa.

At this web page, CDC lists and describes resources for training in emergency preparedness and response for public health workers, healthcare workers, and public leaders. Resources include core competencies, as well as training centers and organizations offering courses on public health preparedness and community planning and engagement.

Provided through Prepare Iowa, a collaboration of the Iowa Department of Health and the University of Iowa, this 1-hour course is intended for anyone who may come into professional contact with disaster victims. The objectives of the course include defining disaster and trauma and understanding how proximity to a disaster event affects the potential for a traumatic response.

In this 1-hour course, information is provided on mental health assessment and intervention with disaster survivors, as well as on making sure that services provided after a disaster are culturally appropriate.

This 2-hour course covers the mental health effects disaster may have on survivors, including acute stress disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder. It provides public health professionals with information about common mental health consequences of disasters, strategies in the immediate response to a disaster that can help with prevention of mental disorders, and public health approaches to post-disaster mental health.

This training covers sources of stress for disaster workers other than first responders, including staff of federal agencies, state and local public health agencies, utilities, social services, repair and cleanup contractors, and voluntary organizations.

Designed for local health department personnel, this course prepares people who manage individuals and teams to use Psychological First Aid (PFA) to foster resilience in those they lead and supervise and help them to do the best work they can.

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 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 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.

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 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 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 civilians they assist. While the course is available free of charge, users must set up a free account with the Fire Hero Learning Network website to access it.

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.

Psychological First Aid (PFA) Online is an interactive course in which the participant learns about PFA by taking on the role of a provider after a disaster. The course includes expert tips, videos, and activities in support of learning. The course is available free of charge; however, to complete a course, you must create a National Child Traumatic Stress Network Learning Center account.

Psychological First Aid (PFA) Online is an interactive course in which the participant learns about PFA by taking on the role of a provider after a disaster. The course includes expert tips, videos, and activities in support of learning. The course is available free of charge; however, to complete a course, you must create a National Child Traumatic Stress Network Learning Center account.

According to this online training, “vicarious trauma can be thought of as the negative changes that happen to humanitarian workers over time as they witness and engage with other people’s suffering and need.” The training discusses signs and symptoms of vicarious trauma and ways for disaster responders to address vicarious trauma.

This part of FEMA’s website describes IS courses offered through FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute (EMI). Designed for first responders, emergency managers, and the public, EMI IS courses cover a range of emergency management topics.