National Center for Disaster Mental Health Research
The newest addition to the trauma program in the Department of Psychiatry is the National Center for Disaster Mental Health Research (NCDMHR), a program project (P60) funded by the National Institute of Mental Health beginning in September 2007. NCDMHR was established to facilitate the rigorous study and effective promotion of resilience and wellness in the context of disaster. It is designed to be methodologically innovative, capable of rapid response to disasters, and responsive to the needs of scientific, policy, and practitioner communities.
The NCDMHR is a multi-institutional collaboration of investigators from Dartmouth Medical School (lead institution), University of Michigan, Medical University of South Carolina, Yale University, and University of Oklahoma with expertise in epidemiology and survey research, postdisaster services and clinical trials, genetics and endocrinology, secondary prevention, and children. NCDMHR is closely affiliated with the National Center for PTSD and shares physical space with it.
More information about NCDMHR's research can be found at www.ncdmhr.org.
Members (Dartmouth Psychiatry)
Center Director
- Fran H. Norris, PhD, Research Professor of Psychiatry
Associate Director for Administration
CBT-PD Study Director
- Jessica L. Hamblen, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Other Affiliated Investigators
- Matthew J. Friedman, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology
- Jessica L. Hamblen, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
- Kim T. Mueser, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Community and Family Medicine
- Stanley D. Rosenberg, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Community and Family Medicine
- Paula P. Schnurr, PhD, Research Professor of Psychiatry and Adjunct Professor of Psychology
- Laurie Slone, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Research
In September 2008, in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, the Center launched the Galveston Bay Recovery Study. This initiative is actually a series of studies, outlined below:
- An epidemiologic study of mental health in Galveston and Chambers Counties, Texas, in which a representative sample of adult residents will be interviewed on three occasions over a 15-month period; the study will provide data on the components, trajectories, and determinants of wellness in disaster-stricken populations and will also provide an assessment of mental health service needs in the Galveston Bay Area.
- A randomized trial of a brief internet psycho-educational intervention.
- A randomized trial of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Postdisaster Distress, a disaster-specific treatment program developed initially by the National Center for PTSD.
Illustrative Publications
Neria, Y., Galea, S., & Norris, F. (Eds.) (2009). Mental health consequences of disasters. NY: Cambridge University Press.
Hamblen, J., Norris, F., Pietruszkiewicz, S., Gibson, L., Naturale, A., & Louis, C. (2009). Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Postdisaster Distress: A community based treatment program for survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research.
Norris, F., Stevens, S., Pfefferbaum, B., Wyche, K., & Pfefferbaum, R. (2008). Community resilience as a metaphor, theory, set of capacities, and strategy for disaster readiness. American Journal of Community Psychology, 41, 127-150.
Norris, F., Galea, S., Friedman, M., & Watson, P. (Eds). (2006). Methods for disaster mental health research. New York: Guilford Press.
Norris, F., Friedman, M., Watson, P., Byrne, C., Diaz, E., & Kaniasty, K. (2002). 60,000 disaster victims speak, Part I: An empirical review of the empirical literature, 1981 - 2001. Psychiatry, 65, 207-239.