College receives $10,000 to help establish new disaster mental health course

NEW PALTZ — The Institute for Disaster Mental Health at the State University of New York at New Paltz has received $10,000 from the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) to help provide the delivery of a three-credit graduate course, titled “Graduate Training in Disaster Mental Health: A Proposal for Creating a Reserve Corps of Mental Health Responders.”

According to James Halpern, director of the IDMH, the primary purpose of this course is to teach disaster mental health to graduate students and practitioners in the helping professions. This course will provide an overview of the theory and research in disaster mental health, as well as describe the very important and unique practice of counseling in chaos, he said.

As part of the course requirements, all students will complete a one-day American Red Cross training in disaster mental health that will allow professionals to be deployed by the American Red Cross to disasters. Advanced graduate interns will also be eligible to be deployed to disasters under the supervision of a licensed mental health professional.

Some of the questions that will be addressed in this course include: What is the impact of disaster on individuals and communities? What are the ordinary and extreme reactions experienced by survivors? What are the variables that determine why some fare better than others? Are first responders and other helpers who work at the scene of a disaster also at emotional risk?

Under the agreement with the OMH, the college will provide up to five tuition/fee-free seats in the course to individuals who are employees of OMH, the counties, or their licensed provider agencies who are designated by OMH, and who meet the pre-requisites for course enrollment. The college can also offer continuing education credits as an alternative to graduate college credits for those students attending under the sponsorship of OMH.

To learn more about the three-credit graduate course or for more information about the IDMH, call (845) 257-3479 or visit www.newpaltz.edu/idmh.