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Child Disaster Mental Health Services: a Review of the System of Care, Assessment Approaches, and Evidence Base for Intervention

  • Child and Family Disaster Psychiatry (B Pfefferbaum, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Several decades of research have informed our knowledge of children’s reactions to disasters and the factors that influence their reactions. This article describes the system of care for child disaster mental health services using population risk to determine needed services and a stepped care approach built on assessment and monitoring to advance children to appropriate services. To assess the evidence base for disaster interventions, recent reviews of numerous child disaster mental health interventions are summarized.

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Acknowledgments

A special thank you to Dr. Tami D. Benton for taking the time to review this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, College of Medicine and Terrorism and Disaster Center, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, 920 Stanton L. Young Boulevard, P.O. Box 26901, WP3217, Oklahoma City, OK, 73126-0901, USA

    Betty Pfefferbaum

  2. The Altshuler Center for Education & Research Metrocare Services, 1380 River Bend Drive, Dallas, TX, 75247-4914, USA

    Carol S. North

  3. Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 6363 Forest Park Road, Dallas, TX, 75390-8828, USA

    Carol S. North

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  1. Betty Pfefferbaum
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Correspondence to Betty Pfefferbaum.

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Betty Pfefferbaum declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Carol S. North reports personal fees from Univ. of Missouri, Oxford University Press, and from American Entertainment International speakers bureau, outside the submitted work.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Child and Family Disaster Psychiatry

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Pfefferbaum, B., North, C.S. Child Disaster Mental Health Services: a Review of the System of Care, Assessment Approaches, and Evidence Base for Intervention. Curr Psychiatry Rep 18, 5 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-015-0647-0

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