Disaster Psychosocial Services

Psychosocial response planning and delivery is being recognized as an increasingly important component of Health Emergency Management. Accordingly, the Ministry of Health Services, Emergency Management Unit and Ministry of Child and Family Development, Child and Youth Mental Health have jointly funded a Disaster Psychosocial Response Project. The goal of this two year plan is the development of a Provincial framework to address the provision of pre, during and post-disaster psychosocial services.

The DSTRS Committee was created in order to provide disaster psychosocial services for British Columbians. The DSTRS Network is comprised of professional therapists/clinicians who are willing to volunteer their time in the event of a disaster. The Network presently consists of approximately 600 volunteers from the B.C. Association of Clinical Counsellors, the B.C. Psychological Association and the B.C. Association of Social Workers. As these three professional associations are provincially based it is possible to provide local, community-based psychosocial support when the need arises.
The psychosocial services that DSTRS can provide include:

  • Coordination of Disaster Behavioural Health Volunteers
  • Collaborative Assessment of Community Needs
  • Psychological First Aid
  • Assessment
  • One-to-One Support
  • Crisis Counselling
  • Crisis Line Response
  • Psycho-educational Interventions
  • Development/ Distribution of Materials
  • Spiritual Care
  • Worker Care
  • Consultation
  • Group Presentations

Psychosocial response involves a range of supportive services with those who are affected by an emergency or disaster, including the promotion of individual, family and community resiliency. These various services are used to help diminish long term psycho social effects, to clarify the current situation and to improve adaptive coping strategies.

In addition to the psychosocial response activities with disaster survivors, the DSTRS Network can take on a variety of other responsibilities such as training, needs assessment or support for administrators.

For additional information, visit the Disaster Psychosocial Project page or the Links page under the Disaster Stress & Trauma Response Services section.