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| Disaster Mental Health and Children |
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- Psychological First Aid for Children and Parents. The Center for Public Health and Disasters has developed two psychological first aid guides entitled "Listen, Protect, and Connect." One guide is for parents and the second is for teachers.
- Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress. This website offers many resources on Disaster and Terrorism, Stress Management, and Children and Families. The Children and Families section contains the following documents: Stress Management for Parents; Teachers Helping Students; Disaster; War; the Impact of Kidnapping, Shooting, and Torture on Children; Understanding Post-Deployment Stress Symptoms; and Post-Deployment Health and Distress Responses.
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Admnistration. This website provides tips for parents, teachers, and emergency/disaster response workers on how to talk about traumatic events.
- Road to Resilience. These brochures from the American Psychological Association are intended to help readers with taking their own road to resilience. The information provided describes factors that affect how children deal with hardship, and focuses on using a strategy for enhancing resilience. There is information specific for parents, teachers, daycare centers and focuses on preschool, elementary, and middle school children.
- National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTS). The mission of NCTS is to raise the standard of care and improve access to services for traumatized children, their families, and communities throughout the United States. Their is information specifically tailored for parents and caregivers, military children and families, and others.
- The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The AAP is actively involved in disaster preparedness at all levels.
The AAP offers pediatricians a variety of resources to:
help families plan their response to a disaster; participate in planning efforts and ensure that childrens' needs are identified/addressed in preparedness plans for emergencies and disasters; and advocate for children by reminding others that children have unique needs, and they are not "small adults" and are more vulnerable, especially after a disaster.
- American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. This website provides helpful information characterizing a child's response to a disaster, and helping families work through that trauma. There are specific resources offered to address a child's depression, grief, sleep problems, stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, and others.
- Helping Children and Teens. This page from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention includes information on general strategies for promoting mental health and resilience that have been developed by various organizations based on experiences in prior disasters.
- Helping Children Cope after a Disaster. The care of a child goes beyond the initial reaction or the physical injuries in a disaster situation. This information from the Child Advocate will help you recognize the signs of stress that your child may be showing and when some symptoms can lead to long-term difficulties.
- Children and Disaster. Disaster situations can present a danger to children, not only to their physical safety but also to their mental health. The information in Part I briefly describes each stage of development and how that may affect children's understanding of disasters. There are ways to help children understand and cope with disaster and trauma, and there are some guidelines listed in Part II.
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