“Mental Health Consequences of Recent Disasters: From Oklahoma City to Katrina,” a conference and workshop, will be offered to area health professionals April 3-6 at the Health Science Center.
The twin events are sponsored by the Center for Public Health Preparedness and Biomedical Research at the Health Science Center and the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council for Trauma. The programs will offer presentations by leaders in disaster mental health, including Carol North, M.D., professor of psychiatry at the UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, and Barry Hong, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Discussion and audience participation will be encouraged.
During the “Psychological First Aid” workshop April 3 and 4, Drs. North and Hong will demonstrate MC-Flash Practical Front-Line Assistance for Support and Healing, Version II, for Medical Centers. The copyrighted name is P-FLASH II©
“MC-Flash translates current and evolving disaster mental health research into practical recommendations to guide medical center personnel from the intense early post-disaster period through long-term recovery,” said conference co-organizer A. David Mangelsdorff, Ph.D., M.P.H., a professor and psychologist who lectures on research methods in health care, international health issues, telecommunication and other topics at the Army-Baylor University Graduate Program in Health and Business Administration.
Participants will gain hands-on experience with MC-Flash on the second day of the workshop, and will be equipped to teach it to others.
The conference April 5 and 6 will feature speakers from a number of institutions, including the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health Preparedness, the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the St. Mary’s University Center for Terrorism Law, and the National Center on the Psychology of Terrorism. Topics will include San Antonio’s mental health disaster consortium, evidence-based psychological interventions for survivors of mass violence, and legal and ethical issues in disaster operations.
The conference co-organizer with Dr. Mangelsdorff is Charles R. Bauer, M.D., professor of surgery/emergency medicine at the Health Science Center and director of the Center for Public Health Preparedness and Biomedical Research. Dr. Mangelsdorff, a Fulbright Scholar who studied at Oxford, Dartmouth and other universities, recently donated $100,000 to establish a public health preparedness and biomedical research professorship at the Health Science Center.
Online registration is available at cme.uthscsa.edu/. Registration is required for both the workshop and the conference. Continuing education credits will be offered.
Additional information may be found at www.txdirect.net/users/dmangels/06sadp.htm. For information by phone, call (210) 567-4446.