VA Providing Hurricane Sandy Responders Mental Health App; Kathleen Frisbee Comments
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The Department of Veterans Affairs is providing a mobile application to mental health workers responding to the effects of Hurricane Sandy, the VA announced Friday.
Psychological First Aid Mobile was launched in August to provide responders with summaries of aid fundamentals, interventions regarding concerns and needs of individual survivors, tips for applying PFA in the field, a self-assessment readiness tool and a survivors’ needs form.
“PFA Mobile was built as a general resource for emergency responders,” said Kathleen Frisbee, director of web and mobile solutions in the Veterans Health Administration’s office of informatics and analytics. “It guides them in the protocol for managing the immediate after-effects of a disaster, including psychological trauma or grieving.”
Since deployment, Frisbee said the app has been downloaded more than 1,800 times and disaster response organizations are promoting the app for trained responders.
The VA’s National Center for PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) created the app in partnership with the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and the Defense Department’s National Center for Telehealth & Technology.
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