Handbook of International Disaster Psychology

A remarkable team of expert authors provides firsthand accounts from disaster survivors around the globe, enabling readers to understand the lingering trauma and mental wounds that might otherwise go unrecognized, yet last a lifetime. These are the men, women, and children who the new field of disaster psychology seeks to heal. They include survivors of torture, terrorism, genocide attempts, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunami, and other manmade or natural disasters. This set of books is the most comprehensive available resource explaining the practices and principles that have been employed, and are being employed, to heal them.

Gilbert Reyes is Associate Dean for Clinical Training at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara. He has been called to assist people trying to recover mental health after disasters, including the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, and numerous hurricane and disaster sites. He has been a consultant to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and, in 2002, co-authored that organization's training manual for community-based psychological support. He lectures nationally on disaster mental health intervention.

Gerard A. Jacobs is Director of the Disaster Mental Health Institute and a Professor of Psychology at the University of South Dakota. He is active in field work, training, program development and consultation nationally and internationally for the Red Cross and the American Psychological Association. He is co-author of the WHO Tool for the Rapid Assessment of Mental Health (2001). A consultant to the World Health Organization from 1999 to 2002, he has worked at disaster sites as varied as the bombing of the U.S. Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 to the deadly earthquake in India in 2001. He was the Red Cross point person on site after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Jacobs served on the Institute of Medicine Committee on Responding to the Psychological Consequences of Terrorism. He works with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center in psychological support training and program development.