Hospital/Community: An Integrated Psychosocial Response

Abstract

Introduction:

Mass-casualty incidents (MCIs) can cause a surge of psychological casualties and family/friends searching for victim information and reunification. Staff training in psychological first aid and a joint hospital-community psychosocial response plan is essential or hospitals will be overwhelmed, reducing their patient care capacity. The aim of this presentation is to outline the steps needed to develop and evaluate a psychosocial response plan template for an urban center of ≥500,000.

Methods:

Existing psychological first aid training programs and hospital-community psychosocial response plans for urban populations ≥500,000 will be surveyed. Psychosocial response staff in community and hospital settings across Canada will be surveyed to determine needs and issues. Common threads will be identified and end-users/experts will be invited to review for feasibility and sustainability. This information will be used to collabora-tively build a plan with the Toronto, Ontario psychosocial community and train and evaluate it in two large-scale exercises 29 November 2009 (mass-casualty trauma) and 30 November 2009 (pandemic), in Toronto. Data will be collected to determine the effectiveness of the plan to absorb and mitigate a MCI surge.

Expected Results: Elements needed for a sustainable psychosocial response training plan that integrates and improves daily operational skills, builds relationships and communication between community and hospitals, and develops a community plan capable of absorbing a surge in psychosocial demand in the event of a mass-casualty incident will be identified.

Conference Presentation: The results of the literature review, preliminary survey results, and an initial framework for the joint Toronto hospital-community psychosocial response plan will be presented.