Children in Disaster Mental Health Curriculum

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Children in Disaster Mental Health Curriculum
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Curriculum Materials

• Build resilience in children and families
• Understand the risk factors
• Comprehend the effects of terrorism on children
• Know the normal signs of stress in children
  developmentally

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Providing Coping Skills

• What matters apparently, is not how individuals
  actually cope but rather how they perceive their
  capacities to cope and control outcomes.

Psychiatry Interpersonal and Biological
Processes, 60,000 Disaster victims Speak Part
II. Summary and Implications of Disaster Mental
Health Research Fran H. Norris, PhD, Matthew J.
Friedman, MD, PhD, and Patricia J. Watson, PhD,
Vol. 65, 3, Fall 2002, p. 238-239.
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BUILDING RESILIENCE

• Resilience
• the ability to adapt
• well to adversity,
• trauma, tragedy,
• threats, or even
• significant
• sources of
• stress.

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Teaching Children Teens to Adapt Well

1. Connections
2. Helping Others
3. Daily Routine
4. Take a break
5. Self-care

APA Help Center Get the Facts Psychology in
Daily Life, A Guide for Parents and Teachers.
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Teaching Children Teens to Adapt Well, continued

• Goal reaching
• A positive self-view
• A hopeful outlook
• Self-discovery
• Change is inevitable

APA Help Center Get the Facts Psychology in
Daily Life, A Guide for Parents and Teachers,
12-11-2003.
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The Effects KNOW THE ODDS!

• Did the disaster affect the child directly?
• How close was the child to the disaster scene?
• How are the childs parents or other caregivers
  coping?

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The Effects

• What gender is the child?
• Does the child have pre-existing risk factors?
• If the whole family was affected, are they
  accepting help?

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Special Considerations

• Evacuation
• Child/parent reunification
• Shelter in place
• Isolation or quarantine
• Decontamination
• Dispensation site
• Vaccination /treatment

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Developmentally Appropriate Outreach

• Children are not little adults.
• Delayed reactions
• Routine
• Referrals

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UNDERREPORTING

• Parents and teachers underreport childrens
  internal experiences after a trauma.
• Encourage parents/ teachers to provide support by
  reflecting on the
• Experience
• Reminders
• Reactions

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The Media

• Encourage families and schools to protect
  children/teens from contact with the media
• Discuss with parents the
• impact that repeated
• images of the event
• have on children.

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Responses to Disaster
Remember that the reactions that you see within
each of these categories are normal and temporary
in the aftermath of a disaster.
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Toddlers and Preschoolers
Reaction reflects parents Regresses
developmentally Changes in eating or sleeping
patterns Fears Clingy behaviors/
separation anxiety Exaggerated startle
response
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Ages five to eleven

• Withdrawal
• Separation anxieties
• Needs more attention
• Decline in school performance
• Difficulty concentrating
• Somatic complaints
• stomach aches
• Heightened aggression/ temper outbursts

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Ages twelve to fourteen

• Sleep Disturbances - other physical
  complaints
• Appetite disturbance
• Competes for attention
• Deserts responsibilities
• Withdraws- loss of interest
• Resists authority
• Turns to friends
• Experiments with alcohol/drugs

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Older Teens

• Confusion/poor concentration
• Feel guilt and helplessness
• Minimize reactions
• More risk-taking behavior
• Separation anxieties
• Overwhelmed by emotions, but unable to discuss
  with family.

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Helping Children with Special Needs 3

• Visual
• Hearing
• Physical Limitations
• Severe Emotional
• Disturbance
• Behavior disorders

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Helping Children with Special Needs 2

• Autism
• Cognitive Limitations
• Learning Disabilities

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Helping Children with Special Needs 1

• Triggers
• Special words
• Images
• Sounds
• Cues
• Physical warning signs
• National Association of School Psychologists
  www.nasponline.org/NEAT/specpop_general.html

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Helping Families with Injured Children

• Higher Risk for emotional problems
• Emotional Support
• Negotiating the system

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Unattended Children

• Definition
• Higher emotional risks later
• Safety
• Anxiety
• Abandonment

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Reassurance Terrorism Events

• Kinds of events
• Terrorism Chemical Biological Radiological
• Incendiary Nuclear (CBRIN)
• Terrorism is an unusual event
• Regain sense of safety
• Desensitization

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Cultural Sensitivity

• Disability
• Language
• Ethnicity
• Norms and Values

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Help for the Caregivers
School Administrators
School Nurses
Counselors
YOU
Traumatized Parents
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When Do We Become Concerned?

• Continuing problems
• Signs to watch for
• Stress or traumatic stress?
• Mental Health Diagnosis

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Warnings Signs Longer Range

• Refusal to return to school
• Clinging behavior
• Persistent fears
• Sleep disturbances
• Loss of concentration
• Irritability
• American Academy of Child Adolescent
  Psychiatry, Helping Children After A Disaster,,
  January 26, 2004. www.aacap.org/publications/fact
  sfam/disaster.htm

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Warnings Signs Longer Range

• Behavior problems
• Physical complaints
• Withdrawal from family friends
• Listlessness
• American Academy of Child Adolescent
  Psychiatry, Helping Children After A Disaster,,
  January 26, 2004. www.aacap.org/publications/fact
  sfam/disaster.htm

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Supportive Activities

• Group discussions
• Puppet plays
• Constructive writing
• Community
• involvement

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Preparing Children for Special Events

• Information
• Age-dependent
• Accurate
• Appropriate
• Timely

• Involvement
• Age-dependent
• Promotes healing
• Respect childs wishes
• Culturally appropriate

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Preparing Children for Special Events

• Hospitalization of family members
• Appropriate visitation
• Keep child involved in hospitalized family
  members life.

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Reporting Requirements

• Report to your supervisor if you suspect
• Child Neglect
• Child Abuse
• Domestic Violence
• Substance Abuse

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Impact of Disaster

• Positive actions with families can
• Reduce child abuse and neglect
• Reduce domestic violence
• Promote understanding in differences in recovery
  time for people
• Help families make positive changes in their
  living circumstances
• Increase recovery
• Help families understand that their reactions are
  normal.

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Contact Information

• Jenny Wiley
• Assistant Coordinator, Disaster Readiness
• Department of Mental Health
• 1706 E. Elm
• Jefferson City, MO 65102
• 573-751-4730
• Email jenny.wiley_at_dmh.mo.gov