American Red Cross Expands Eligibility for Disaster Mental Health Program
by John Weaver, LCSW
John Weaver, LCSW, has been a Disaster Mental Health (DMH) volunteer with the American Red Cross (ARC) for 25 years. Over that time, he has worked at many local and national disasters, including service during the Great Mississippi River/Midwest Floods of 1993, coordinating DMH activities with morgue volunteers following the 1994 airline crash in Pittsburgh, and service with the ARC team at the 1996 plane crash in the Everglades near Miami. He served as Coordinator of the ARC AIR Team’s Family Assistance Center following the 9/11/01 terrorist incident that led to the crash of United Flight 93 in Shenksville, PA, and then served as an Assistant Officer helping manage the larger World Trade Center relief operation in New York City. Today, he is ARC’s Mid-Atlantic Division DMH Advisor, and he is seeking additional volunteers for the team.
Since 1992, the American Red Cross (ARC) has recruited social workers and other mental health professionals to serve in the Disaster Mental Health (DMH) program, and the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) has partnered with them to support recruitment. In the aftermath of disasters, DMH volunteers support co-workers, survivors, and relief partners with identification of mental health needs (psychological triage), promotion of resilience and coping skills (psychological first aid, psychoeducation, public health messaging, and consultation), and targeted interventions (referrals, crisis intervention, casualty support, and advocacy).
Prior to 2017, DMH volunteers had to be clinically licensed or certified social workers, psychologists, counselors, marriage and family therapists, psychiatric nurses, or psychiatrists. Graduate students under the direct supervision of a fully qualified DMH worker were also qualified to serve. Now, eligibility has been expanded to include: (1) mental health professionals with any master's-level license (e.g., LSW); and (2) mental health professionals who retired their licenses or certifications within the past five years. Allowing retirees saves many current DMH workers from having to end their volunteer careers when they can no longer afford the cost of maintaining their CEUs and license renewals.
Once qualified volunteers have completed training, they can serve locally and, if their schedules allow, travel to exotic and not-so-exotic places, meeting and helping people whose lives have been struck by disasters. ARC covers all the disaster-related expenses of volunteers.
WARNING: One brief tour of duty with ARC is usually enough to get someone hooked into a lifetime of volunteer service. The practice experiences are wonderfully rich and rewarding. Relief work has rekindled the kind of helping spirit among many DMH workers that they have not felt since shortly after graduate school. Some describe their first experience as a calling to their DMH volunteer career. No other moments in my professional career have come close to providing me the wonderful moments I have experienced as a Red Cross volunteer.
The NASW Code of Ethics – Section 6.03 Public Emergencies states: Social workers should provide appropriate professional services in public emergencies to the greatest extent possible. Social workers are ideally suited for supporting disaster preparedness, response, and recovery efforts.
In addition to being Social Work Month, March is Red Cross Month. Every eight minutes, the American Red Cross brings help and hope to people in need. Please consider joining our team. Contact ARC and see what it is all about. The best way to get started is to click this link: http://www.redcross.org/support/volunteer/opportunities#step1
MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
John D. Weaver, LCSW, is a Disaster Mental Health Volunteer and Mid-Atlantic Division DMH Advisor. He can be contacted at john.weaver@redcross.org or by phone at 610-762-3944.