Net Exchange Response
Title: Resources to help students, family, and schools in the aftermath of weather-related disasters
Date Posted: 9/16/2008

Question: If you have any resources that would be helpful for communities that have been significantly impacted by the flooding and other weather events we would appreciate receiving them. Several parts of the state and multiple school districts have been heavily impacted.

Response: This is not only timely for those in the midwest, it also is a concern of those impacted by the current hurricane season. Here’s a start.

The Center’s homepage has an icon labeled Responding to Crisis which takes folks to a host of relevant resources.

A few brief documents from our Center specifically related to loss and recovery from a natural disaster are:

  1. School Helping Students Deal with Loss – http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/loss.pdf

  2. About Planning and Action for the Mental Health Needs of Students and School Staff in the Aftermath of a Natural Disaster – http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/planningneeds.pdf

  3. School Responses to Natural Disasters – http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/practicenotes/naturaldisasters.pdf

For a larger guidebook, see Responding to Crisis at a School – http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/crisis/crisis.pdf

Also see from CDC:

Our Center is part of the National Initiative to Improve Adolescent Health, so we asked the partners in that group about other relevant resources they would recommend.

Here are some that were shared:

From the University of Arizona – http://ag.arizona.edu/fcs/supporting_families/

  • Supporting Families Following a Disaster: An Overview
  • Promoting a Family's Physical and Mental Health and Well-Being
  • Understanding the Impact of Disasters on the Lives of Children and Youth
  • Supporting Children and Youth Following a Disaster
  • Stress Management After a Disaster
  • Encouraging Family Communication After a Disaster
  • Managing Conflict Following a Disaster
  • Understanding Depression Following a Disaster

From the University of Illinois – http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/disaster/teacher/teacher.html

  • Children, Stress, and Natural Disasters – Children, Stress, and Natural Disasters from the University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service is a set of resources for teachers and other child-care or youth workers that helps prepare them for working with children who have been through a disaster. These resources include:
    • A Guide for Teachers – Provides information that describes what children might experience during and after a disaster, how they might react to a disaster, and what teachers can do to help students during the recovery period.
    • School Activities for Teachers – Includes suggestions for activities that teachers can use in their classrooms after a disaster, lists of curriculum guides on disaster-related topics, a bibliography of children's literature on floods and natural disasters, and a list of resource material that are available from the American Red Cross.

Finally, it should be noted that there are a large number of resources related to trauma and disaster, more generally. Links to a number of these are readily available through our Online Clearinghouse Quick Find on: Crisis Prevention and Response – http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/qf/p2107_01.htm

Submit a request or comment now.

UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools
Dept. of Psychology, P.O.Box 951563, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
tel: (310)825-3634
email: Linda Taylor ~ web: https://smhp.psych.ucla.edu