Care of Children Exposed to the Traumatic Effects of Disaster

by Jon A. Shaw MD MS, Zelde Espinel MD MA MPH, James M. Shultz MS PhD

Overview

Care of Children Exposed to the Traumatic Effects of Disaster addresses the effects of disaster on children and their families, and explores the various resources that mental health practitioners and others who routinely interact with children, such as teachers, first responders, health care professionals, child care providers, child welfare professionals, and faith-based community members, can use to help them in their hour of need.

The three co-authors have had extensive, and intensive, experience working with disaster victims and preparing both professionals and laypeople to intervene effectively in extreme events. Those on the front lines will find the book's practical and insightful observations, techniques, and strategies indispensible. Specifically, the book • Explains not only how to provide basic support services and brief interventions but how to recognize children in distress, to actively support positive coping skills, to monitor children's well-being in the aftermath of disaster and to identify those who need more intensive evaluation and intervention.• Encompasses a broad range of disasters, from the "natural" (such as earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, and hurricanes) to the human generated (such as wars, civil strife, ethnic conflict, and acts of terrorism).• Provides a timeline of psychological responses to disaster, with its impact phase and cascade of secondary adversities in the aftermath of disaster, which establishes helpful benchmarks to those providing support.• Includes numerous tables and figures that convey complex information in an intuitive, easy-to-understand way.

Care of Children Exposed to the Traumatic Effects of Disaster emphasizes the critical importance of effective therapeutic intervention -- which restores function, enhances recovery, and creates a safe and secure environment -- and explains how to mobilize family and social supports to achieve that goal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781585629848
Publisher:	American Psychiatric Publishing, Incorporated
Publication date:	09/24/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	243
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jon A. Shaw, M.D., M.S., is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Miller School of Medicine of the University of Miami in Miami, Florida.

Zelde Espinel, M.D., M.A., M.P.H., is Co-Director of the Center for Disaster and Extreme Event Preparedness (DEEP Center) in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Miller School of Medicine of the University of Miami in Miami, Florida.

James M. Shultz, M.S., Ph.D., is Director of the Center for Disaster and Extreme Event Preparedness (DEEP Center) in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Miller School of Medicine of the University of Miami in Miami, Florida.

Table of Contents

About the AuthorsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsChapter 1. Disaster, Stress, and TraumaChapter 2. Natural and Human-Generated DisastersChapter 3. The Context of TraumaChapter 4. Children's Psychological Responses to DisastersChapter 5. Children With Special Needs During DisastersChapter 6. Traumatic BereavementChapter 7. Child and Family AssessmentChapter 8. InterventionsChapter 9. Generally Accepted Truths: The Psychological Effects of Trauma on ChildrenIndex

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Jason Chang, MD (Rush University Medical Center)
Description: This is an overview of the assessment and treatment of children who are exposed to disasters.
Purpose: It is intended as a guide with tools to help support, intervene, and identify children who need help overcoming traumatic events. This is a worthy objective because, as noted in the book, mental health and support services are often overlooked, delayed, and even haphazard following disasters. The authors have done a good job of meeting their goal of focusing on assessment and referral.
Audience: It is targeted at professional and volunteer disaster responders, including community members, who interact with children exposed to extreme events. The authors are psychiatrists and psychologists involved with the Disaster and Extreme Event Preparedness Center at the Miller School of Medicine in Miami.
Features: The book opens by reviewing the definitions, classification, types, and examples of various concepts, including trauma, stressors, disasters, and stress responses. A particularly interesting part details various types of natural and human disasters and some of the relevant characteristics and classic responses. The book stresses the importance of the context of an experience, as well as the proper interventions and support, and the importance of the timeliness of these interventions. It then highlights proper assessment and screening of victims, finishing with a guide to interventions and treatment, including therapies and medications. The only shortcoming is that the interventions section is comparatively short — for example, the review of medications and therapies is rather cursory. However, the authors did not identify this as a primary goal, instead focusing on assessment and identification of victims. One nice touch is the more detailed table of contents, as well as objectives before each chapter with key clinical points after to help guide reading and comprehension.
Assessment: Overall, the book meets its stated objectives well. It reads easily and is appropriate for its target audience. It provides a good framework for thinking about and approaching different types of disasters and trauma, and presents an organized approach to assessing the impact on exposed children and determining the need for and proper extent of mental health services. A more extensive overview of treatment would have been nice, but the information the book provides is in line with the stated objectives.

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