141st APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

295916
Mental health response to the Boston bombings


Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Richard H. Beinecke, DPA, ACSW, Department of Public Management, Suffolk University, Boston, MA
On April 15, two bombs were exploded at the Boston Marathon killing three people and injuring many others. The medical response was excellent; no one who was injured died. Less well known is that the mental health response to the Boston bombings was extensive and well organized and provided much important psychiatric care to victims, responders, providers, and the community. Interviews with the key players including Federal, state, and Boston public agencies and providers, police chiefs, psychiatric staff at area hospitals, and the Red Cross demonstrate very important lessons from their activities for behavioral and other disaster responders. After Boston, mental health should no longer be a secondary consideration in disaster planning but a core component in effective intervention strategies.

Learning Areas:

Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Describe the mental health and public health responses to the Boston Marathon bombings List important elements of disaster and terrorist preparedness and action Identify key organizational lessons from the bombings

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been a mental health clinician, manager, and evaluator of public mental health and public health programs since 1971. For the past twenty years, I have taught and written on effective leadership in situations of change.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4368.0: Understanding the Impact of Trauma on Mental Health