The need for mental health interventions in disasters has long been recognized. The Florida Center for Public Health Preparedness (FCPHP) has been providing disaster mental health training to employees of the Florida Department of Health and others since 2001. One of the training programs was Bioterrorism Trauma Intervention Specialist Training (BTIST), offered between May 2003 and January 2004. The FCPHP has also developed three distance learning courses, including one that provides advice to responders who are experiencing compassion fatigue. The BTIST curriculum prepares participants to provide mental health interventions during and following disasters. The four hurricanes that struck Florida in a 7-week period in 2004 created a great demand for mental health services. The FCPHP supported the Florida Department of Health response effort by providing a roster of BTIST trainees and hundreds of copies of the compassion fatigue audio CD. The FCPHP conducted a Web-based survey of the BTIST participants after the hurricanes. A large majority of respondents reported that the training had given them greater knowledge of disaster mental health, provided many disaster mental health skills, and the skills had been valuable in their professional and personal lives. Most of those who had actively responded to the hurricanes indicated that the training had given them confidence for their response and that they had used the acquired skills in their response efforts.
Technology use is affected by unforeseen variables, such as physical space limitations and examination room availability. Family concerns about patient privacy issues were rare and were resolved quickly by the health care practitioner. Although using this equipment is not difficult, the search for user-friendliness should be continued. Staff engagement early in the process likely will result in a greater likelihood of use of the technology.telehealth, telemedicine, child protection, child abuse and neglect, concept mapping.
The Florida Child Protection Team (CPT) program is a statewide assessment model that was developed to provide objective multidisciplinary evaluations of complex cases of alleged child maltreatment. However, only limited research has examined the content and quality of CPT assessment practices. In fact, the limited research on the quality and content of child protection assessments in relation to child protection assessment "best practices" is a system wide problem. In the current study, we sought to systematically evaluate the assessment practices of a pilot sample of CPTs. Specifically, we were interested in gaining a better understanding of the population served by CPTs, the types of evaluations offered, the content of the assessments, clinical interpretations and findings, and recommendations. The results show areas in which CPT functions as an effective multidisciplinary assessment team and relative weaknesses in assessment practices that may require changes in CPT policy and/or additional training.
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