Consumidor

APA’s Response to International and National
Disasters and Crises: Addressing Diverse Needs
2005 Annual Report of the APA Policy and Planning Board
The 2005 Policy and Planning Board of the American
Psychological Association (APA) was chaired by Sandra E.
Tars, PhD. Other members of the Policy and Planning
Board included G. Andrew H. Benjamin, JD, PhD; Mae
Lee Billet-Ziskin, PhD; ConnieChan, PhD; Cynthia P.
Deutsch, PhD; Lisa R. Grossman, JD, PhD; Janet R. Matthews,
PhD; Morgan T. Sammons, PhD; Derald Wing Sue,
PhD; Susan Krauss Whitbourne, PhD; and Gerald P.
Koocher, PhD, the liaison for the Board of Directors. APA
Bylaws Article XI.7 requires that the Policy and Planning
Board report annually by publication to the membership
and review the structure and function of theAssociation as
a whole every fifth year.
During 2005, psychology and APA have been called
on to respond, at unprecedented levels, to the aftermath of
natural disasters, war, and terrorism. Beginning with the
Southeast Asian tsunami at the very end of 2004, the world
experienced a series of natural disasters that took the lives
of hundreds of thousands of people, precipitated mass
traumaamong survivors, and caused large-scale chaos,
disruption, and social displacement. The December 2004
tsunami that struck the shores of Indonesia, Sri Lanka,
South India, and Thailand took the lives of approximately
275,000 people. Hurricane Katrina, in late August, caused
widespread devastation to the Gulf Coast of the United
States, including the near destruction of New Orleans.
HurricanesRita and Wilma, following Katrina by less than
a month, exacted their fury on the Texas coast, Mexico, and
the Caribbean. In October, the Kashmir earthquake in Pakistan
killed over 90,000 people. Current concerns focus
not only on natural disasters, such as the recent deadly
mudslides in the Philippines, but on the threat of pandemic
illness (avian flu) or widespread suffering due to continuedpolitical unrest and armed conflict.
APA reacted to the tsunami and the hurricanes with
immediate and wide-ranging responses. Most significant of
these were the donation of funds to support relief organizations
as well as to APA members who lost their homes
and practices. APA’s Disaster Response Network (DRN)
mobilized individual psychologists to assist with a variety
of relief efforts.All of the APA Central Office directorates,
as well as several divisions and state, provincial, and territorial
associations, provided information to the general
public, community helpers, and psychologists on responding
to trauma. The APA Board of Directors established a
task force to develop recommendations regarding cultural
competence in disaster response.
Now that these immediate crisesare behind us, it
gives us a chance to reflect on a number of significant
questions for APA and the profession. What are the implications
for planning responses to future disasters? We
believe that organized psychology and psychological science
can and should contribute to an understanding and a
determination of effective response to other types of
disasters.
For example, pandemic illnessis one area that should
be the focus of planners of psychological services. In 2005,
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published
online guidelines (http://www.hhs.gov/pandemicflu/
plan/) pertaining to pandemic flu. Those guidelines delineated
specific recommendations for behavioral health care.
These guidelines were created with the involvement of
psychologists but withoutthe expert consultation of the
APA. We believe that the resources that APA has to offer
in the area of behavioral health warrant that our expertise
be tapped in the provision of guidelines such as these in the
future.
Given the tremendous psychological impact of disasters
and crises, the Policy and Planning Board decided to
focus this 2005 annual report on the history and evolution
of...