title: Lessons learned about psychosocial responses to disaster and mass trauma: an international perspective.
abstract: At the 13th meeting of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies in 2013, a symposium was held that brought together international researchers and clinicians who were involved in psychosocial responses to disaster. A total of six disasters that occurred in five countries were presented and discussed. Lessons learned from these disasters included the need to: (1) tailor the psychosocial response to the specific disaster, (2) provide multi-dimensional psychosocial care, (3) target at-risk population groups, (4) proactively address barriers in access to care, (5) recognise the social dimensions and sources of resilience, (6) extend the roles for mental health professionals, (7) efficiently coordinate and integrate disaster response services, and (8) integrate research and evaluation into disaster response planning.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Mental Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Lennart
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Reifels
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pietrantoni
authors.affiliation: School of Political Science, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Prati
authors.affiliation: National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Department of Adult Mental Health, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshiharu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA.
authors.forename: Dean G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Kilpatrick
authors.affiliation: Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Grete
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dyb
authors.affiliation: Institute for Disaster Mental Health, State University of New York, New Paltz, NY, USA.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Halpern
authors.affiliation: Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands ; Arq Psychotrauma Expert Center, Diemen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Miranda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Olff
authors.affiliation: Clinical, Educational & Health Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Chris R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Brewin
authors.affiliation: Australian Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Meaghan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: O'Donnell
keywords: Disasters; disaster planning; mental health; psychosocial; trauma