Product Cover

Methods for Disaster Mental Health Research

Edited by Fran H. Norris, Sandro Galea, Matthew J. Friedman, and Patricia J. Watson

Hardcover
Hardcover
August 3, 2006
ISBN 9781593853105
Price: $59.00
326 Pages
Size: 6" x 9"
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This authoritative book will be of interest to anyone involved in studying the mental health consequences of large-scale traumatic events or in measuring the effectiveness of postdisaster interventions. The book considers disasters from different perspectives and translates their chaotic aftermath into feasible research ideas and approaches. Contributing authors, all experienced researchers and practitioners, present a wide range of methods and strategies used in epidemiology, program evaluation, and public mental health planning in the aftermath of natural or technological disasters and terrorism. Descriptions of exemplary studies bring to life the associated logistical and scientific challenges and show how these challenges can be addressed using high-quality research designs.

“A unique contribution to the disaster mental health literature....This book should be read by mental health professionals who seek clearly written, timely, and authoritative presentations on disaster research methodology.”

Psychiatric Services


“The publication of this book, Methods for Disaster Mental Health Research, is a seminal event in the history of disaster mental health research. It answers the growing awareness of a need for agreed-upon scientific values and articulation of methodologies within the disaster mental health research community, oriented toward the creation of information that can guide the development of programs and policy. It is an immensely practical and readable volume, well organized and thought through. It is carefully designed to be user-friendly for those entering into disaster research for the first time, from the exhaustive review of different definitions of disaster in the first chapter to the appendices at the end of the book, providing a brief description of each disaster mentioned in the book....This is a wonderful, ambitious book...covers a multitude of intimidating material in a simple, organized fashion. It will serve not only those wishing to conduct disaster mental health research but also those who need to be able to use the results of the research to formulate policy.”

PsycCRITIQUES


“This encyclopedic but easy to read volume offers a valuable and much needed resource to investigators attempting to meet the challenge of disaster research. It reviews key concepts in the field, and presents a framework for formulating research questions, and the most effective designs and methods for answering them, including approaches to sampling and data collection. As such it is an important move toward bringing order to a crucial area of contemporary research.”

Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease


“The editors have done a marvelous job of creating an instructive and well-written book that is a 'must read' for all who conduct disaster-related mental health research or who are involved in recovery planning and public health practice. For students, professionals, researchers, and policymakers, the book provides a solid foundation in research methods and includes wonderful explanations. I wholeheartedly recommend this book as a standard text for disaster research. It supplies the framework for good data collection, and good data are what support sound policy decisions.”

—CDR Dori B. Reissman, MD, MPH, U.S. Public Health Service and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention


“This is an exceptional volume that is sure to become a classic, oft-referenced text in the field. Its great strength is the integration of ideas and methods, which too often are addressed in an either/or fashion. The book interweaves trauma and disaster theory, ethics, treatment, and policy, within the context of methodological approaches. It is masterfully done.”

—Stevan E. Hobfoll, PhD, Kent State University and Summa Health System


“This unique and much-needed volume brings together concise, focused chapters by the world’s leading experts, covering all the major aspects of researching mental health after disasters. The editors have succeeded in summarizing years of accumulated wisdom and experience in a readable and easily accessible form. Disaster mental health research is complex and challenging. My recommendation is that nobody should attempt it without first reading this book.”

—Chris R. Brewin PhD, Department of Clinical, Educational, and Health Psychology (Emeritus), University College London, United Kingdom

Table of Contents

I. Introduction to the Field

1. Definitions and Concepts in Disaster Research, Alexander C. McFarlane and Fran H. Norris

2. Psychosocial Consequences of Disasters: A Review of Past Research, Fran H. Norris and Carrie L. Elrod

II. Research Fundamentals

3. Choosing Research Methods to Match Research Goals in Studies of Disaster or Terrorism, Carol S. North and Fran H. Norris

4. Formulating Questions about Postdisaster Mental Health, Charles C. Benight, Alexander C. McFarlane, and Fran H. Norris

5. Ethical Issues in Disaster Research, Alan R. Fleischman, Lauren Collogan, and Farris Tuma

III. Methods for Sampling and Data Collection

6. Basic Epidemiological Approaches to Disaster Research: Value of Face-to-Face Procedures, Evelyn J. Bromet and Johan M. Havenaar

7. Telephone-Based Research Methods in Disaster Research, Sandro Galea, Michael Bucuvalas, Heidi Resnick, John Boyle, David Vlahov, and Dean Kilpatrick

8. Web-Based Methods in Disaster Research, William E. Schlenger and Roxane Cohen Silver

9. School-Based Studies of Children Following Disasters, Annette M. La Greca

10. Qualitative Approaches to Studying the Effects of Disasters, Lawrence A. Palinkas

IV. Research for Planning, Policy, and Service Delivery

11. Public Mental Health Surveillance and Monitoring, Sandro Galea and Fran H. Norris

12. Mental Health Services and Evaluation Research: Precepts, Pragmatics, and Politics, Craig S. Rosen and Helena E. Young

13. Evidence-Based Treatments for Traumatic Stress: An Overview of the Research with an Emphasis on Disaster Settings, Laura E. Gibson, Jessica L. Hamblen, Michael J. Zvolensky, and Anka A. Vujanovic

14. Strategies for Dissemination of Evidence-Based Treatments: Training Clinicians after Large-Scale Disasters, Randall D. Marshall, Lawrence Amsel, Yuval Neria, and Eun-Jung Suh

V. Special Challenges in Disaster Research

15. Conducting Research with Children and Adolescents after Disaster, Alan M. Steinberg, Melissa J. Brymer, Jesse R. Steinberg, and Betty Pfefferbaum

16. Conducting Research with Military and Uniformed Services Workers, Carol S. Fullerton, James E. McCarroll, and Robert J. Ursano

17. Conducting Research in Minority and Marginalized Communities, Russell T. Jones, James M. Hadder, Franklin Carvajal, Sara Chapman, and Apryl Alexander

18. Conducting Research in Other Countries, Arthur D. Murphy, Julia L. Perilla, and Eric Jones

19. Disaster Mental Health Research: Challenges for the Future, Matthew J. Friedman

Appendix 1. Disasters Mentioned in the Text, Sandro Galea

Appendix 2. Searching the Traumatic Stress Literature, Fred Lerner


About the Editors

Fran H. Norris, PhD, a community/social psychologist, is a Research Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Dartmouth Medical School, where she is affiliated with the National Center for PTSD and with the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Response to Terrorism, headed by the University of Maryland. She has published extensively on the psychosocial consequences of disasters.

Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and a Research Affiliate of the Population Studies Center at the Institute for Social Research. His research focuses on the social and economic production of health, particularly mental health and behavior in urban settings, and he has an abiding interest in the social and health consequences of collectively experienced traumatic events.

Matthew J. Friedman, MD, PhD, before retiring in 2022, was founder and Director of the National PTSD Brain Bank; Senior Advisor to the National Center for PTSD, where he served for 24 years as Executive Director; and Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology at Dartmouth Medical School. He \ worked with patients with PTSD for over 50 years and has approximately 360 publications, including 29 books.

Patricia J. Watson, PhD, is a Senior Educational Specialist for the National Center for PTSD. She collaborates with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and subject-matter experts to create publications for public and mental health interventions following large-scale terrorism, disaster, and pandemic flu.

Contributors

Apryl Alexander, BS, Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia

Lawrence Amsel, PhD, Center for Bioethics, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York

Charles C. Benight, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, Colorado

John Boyle, PhD, Schulman, Ronca & Bucuvalas Inc., New York, New York

Evelyn J. Bromet, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York

Melissa J. Brymer, PsyD, National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California

Michael Bucuvalas, PhD, Schulman, Ronca & Bucuvalas Inc., New York, New York

Franklin Carvajal, PhD, Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia

Sara Chapman, BS, Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia

Lauren Collogan, BA, New York Academy of Medicine, New York, New York

Carrie L. Elrod, PhD, Elrod and Associates, Buckhead, Georgia

Alan R. Fleischman, MD, New York Academy of Medicine, New York, New York

Matthew J. Friedman, MD, PhD, National Center for PTSD, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, White River Junction, Vermont; Department of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire

Carol S. Fullerton, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland

Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Laura E. Gibson, PhD, The Behavior Therapy and Psychotherapy Center, Department of Psychology, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont

James M. Hadder, BS, Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia

Jessica L. Hamblen, PhD, National Center for PTSD, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, White River Junction, Vermont; Department of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire

Johan M. Havenaar, MD, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, Utrecht University Hospital, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Eric Jones, PhD, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina

Russell T. Jones, PhD, Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia

Dean Kilpatrick, PhD, National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina

Annette M. La Greca, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida

Fred Lerner, DLS, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, White River Junction, Vermont

Randall D. Marshall, MD, New York State Psychiatric Institute, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York

James E. McCarroll, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland

Alexander C. McFarlane, MD, Center for Military and Veterans Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia

Arthur D. Murphy, PhD, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina

Yuval Neria, PhD, New York State Psychiatric Institute, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York

Carol S. North, MD, Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas

Fran H. Norris, PhD, National Center for PTSD, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, White River Junction, Vermont; Department of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire

Lawrence A. Palinkas, PhD, School of Social Work, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Julia L. Perilla, PhD, Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia

Betty Pfefferbaum, MD, JD, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Heidi Resnick, PhD, National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina

Craig S. Rosen, PhD, National Center for PTSD, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Menlo Park, California; Department of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California

William E. Schlenger, PhD, Behavioral Health Research Practice, Abt Associates, Inc., Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

Roxane Cohen Silver, PhD, Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California

Alan M. Steinberg, PhD, National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California

Jesse R. Steinberg, MA, Department of Philosophy, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California

Eun-Jung Suh, PhD, New York State Psychiatric Institute, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York

Farris Tuma, PhD, Traumatic Stress Disorders Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland

Robert J. Ursano, MD, Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland

David Vlahov, PhD, Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies, New York Academy of Medicine, New York, New York

Anka A. Vujanovic, BA, Department of Psychology, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont

Helena E. Young, PhD, National Center for PTSD, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Menlo Park, California

Michael J. Zvolensky, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont

Audience

Researchers and students in clinical psychology, psychiatry, social work, public health, and related disciplines who study the effects of disaster; also of interest to clinicians specializing in disaster mental health or treatment of psychological trauma.

Course Use

May serve as a primary or supplemental text in graduate-level courses.