title: Delivery of Mental Health Care in a Large Disaster Shelter.
abstract: Large numbers of evacuees arrived in Dallas, Texas, from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita just 3 weeks apart in 2005 and from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike just 3 weeks apart again in 2008. The Dallas community needed to locate, organize, and manage the response to provide shelter and health care with locally available resources. With each successive hurricane, disaster response leaders applied many lessons learned from prior operations to become more efficient and effective in the provision of services. Mental health services proved to be an essential component. From these experiences, a set of operating guidelines for large evacuee shelter mental health services in Dallas was developed, with involvement of key stakeholders. A generic description of the processes and procedures used in Dallas that highlights the important concepts, key considerations, and organizational steps was then created for potential adaptation by other communities.
authors.affiliation: 1Metrocare Services and the Departments of Psychiatry and Emergency Medicine of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center,Dallas,Texas.
authors.forename: Carol S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: North
authors.affiliation: 2Department of Emergency Medicine of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center,Dallas,Texas.
authors.forename: Richard V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: King
authors.affiliation: 2Department of Emergency Medicine of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center,Dallas,Texas.
authors.forename: Raymond L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Fowler
authors.affiliation: 3Dallas County Health and Human Services,Dallas,Texas.
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kucmierz
authors.affiliation: 3Dallas County Health and Human Services,Dallas,Texas.
authors.forename: Jess D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Wade
authors.affiliation: 4City of Dallas Police Department,Dallas,Texas.
authors.forename: Dave
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hogan
authors.affiliation: 5Aids Arms,Dallas,Texas.
authors.forename: John T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Carlo
mesh_terms: D055867:Cyclonic Storms; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D054597:Disaster Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000379:methods*; D060447:Emergency Shelter; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013781:Texas
keywords: disasters; emergency preparedness; hurricane; mental disorders