Volunteers mental health care

In September, 2005, I spent two weeks as an independent volunteer at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas where between 2,000 and 4,000 Katrina evacuees were cared for daily. I worked along with local professionals in a satellite mental health clinic at the base. We spent time roaming in the huge dormitories to talk with folks informally, provide support, and identify individuals and families who might benefit from more specific services in the clinic itself. In the clinic, we provided assessments of mental health needs arranged for assistance with practical matters such as securing prescriptions provided counseling around issues such as insomnia, flashbacks, anxiety and provided support as people told their stories of horror. 

Because of the tremendous scope of the Twin Towers disaster, and the fact that there were so few of the physically injured to care for, 9/11 turned out to be primarily a mental health disaster. Experience with such disasters has served only to emphasize the importance of recruiting, screening, and training mental health professionals, paraprofessionals, and volunteers in order to have the personnel necessary to respond to the specific short- and long-term needs of those exposed to the disaster. 

Selection Bias The volunteers received careful physical and mental screening examinations for contraindications to the planned tests. The health of a volunteer helped to determine the type of test in which he participated. The more healthy men were exposed to the active chemicals, and the less healthy were used as controls and in some cases tested equipment without being exposed to chemicals. Such selection bias means that the men not exposed to chemicals would be expected to have more illness therefore, the likelihood of discovering effects in them (whether early or late) due to the treatments would be smaller. 

Salvi S, Blomberg A, Rudell B, Kelly F, Sandstrom T, Holgate ST, Frew A et al (1999) Acute inflammatory responses in the airways and peripheral blood after short-term exposure to diesel exhaust in healthy human volunteers. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 159 702-709 Samoli E, Peng R, Ramsay T, Pipikou M, Touloumi G, Dominici F, Burnett R, Cohen A, Krewski D, Samet J, Katsouyanni K (2008) Acute effects of ambient particulate matter on mentality in Europe and North America results from the APHENA study. Environ Health Perspect 116 1480-1486... 

---