Session: Community Trauma and Access to Mental Health Care: Using Mixed Methodology to Uncover Need, Barriers and Innovative Pathways


Saturday, 15 January 2005: 4:00 PM-5:45 PM
Hibiscus B (Hyatt Regency Miami)
Community Trauma and Access to Mental Health Care: Using Mixed Methodology to Uncover Need, Barriers and Innovative Pathways

Organizer:	Margaret (Peggy) O'Neill, PhD, Columbia University School of Social Work
Discussant:	Daniel B. Herman, Columbia University
		New York's Mental Health Response to the World Trade Center Attacks of September 11, 2001: Event Reaction and Referral Data April Naturale, MSW
		The Impact of September 11th Upon Arab-Americans' Wellbeing Wahiba Abu-Ras, PhD, Soleman H. Abu-Bader, PhD, Nabila El-Bassel, DSW
		Psychosocial Factors Associated with Criminal Behavior in Adolescent Immigrant Boys in Denmark: A Content Analysis of 14 Case Studies Talli Ungar Felding, CandPsych
		When Disaster Strikes in Unprecedented Ways: Evaluating a Culturally Sensitive Psychoeducational Group Intervention During a National Crisis Ellen P. Lukens, PhD, Helle Thorning, PhD, Margaret (Peggy) O'Neill, PhD, Zulema Suarez, PhD, Teddy Chen, PhD, Milagros Batiste, MS, Wahiba Abu-Ras, PhD, Lin Fang, MSW
Format:	Symposium
Abstract Text: The reverberations of community trauma are widespread and present significant challenges to the delivery of mental health services. The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 activated the mental health community in New York City to identify and reach out to an estimated 1.5 million “high risk” individuals such as immigrants and low-income populations. The complexity and diversity of these populations heightened the need to develop innovative and informed best practices for survivors of community trauma. The mental health disaster response to the WTC attacks uncovered pre-existing immigration trauma among recent immigrant communities, now compounded by heightened suspicion and hostility. Limited access to mainstream mental health services combined with the effects of the disaster, demand research efforts to enhance, alter and reinvent mental health service delivery for culturally diverse and economically marginalized communities. This symposium consists of four papers. Three of the papers address community needs (micro and macro) and the provision of focused mental health services in New York City after September 11, 2001. The first paper describes the event reaction data collected by the New York State Office of Mental Health run emergency crisis-counseling program in the New York City area. The second paper presents qualitative data gathered through structured but flexible interviews guided by trauma theory designed to elicit perspectives on the impact of September 11 on the Arab American community. The final paper describes the evaluation of an innovative community-based psychoeducation group intervention model developed collaboratively by academic investigators/practitioners, community based providers and participants. An international perspective on the limitations of access to mental health care influenced by dominant service delivery practices is introduced in the third paper. This paper reports on in-depth case studies of immigrant adolescent boys in Denmark who engage in antisocial behavior often attributed to the immigration experience. This symposium underscores how in using a mixed methodology community trauma mental health intervention models can be adapted and designed to be more culturally relevant to diverse populations.

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