Promoting Mental Health for Disasters & Community Mental Health Promotion

Exposure to wildfire smoke can have mental health effects. Individuals and communities who have been impacted by wildfires, smoky conditions may induce heightened awareness, concern, anxiety and fear. Healthy coping skills to overcome daily challenges in your life is an important step to maintaining good mental health. It’s these same skills that will help you cope better during emergencies. There is a resource for you that includes some helpful tips and a list of other helpful resources.

If you are a health professional there are some key messages for your clients/patients, tips that you can offer, and a list of helpful resources.

• Preparing Emotionally for a Disasters or Emergencies
• Helping Children and Teens Prepare Emotionally for a Disasters or Emergency
• Preparing Emotionally for a Disaster or Emergency: Information for Older Adults

We would really like to hear from you on how you are using this resource. Please take the time to provide us with as much information as you feel comfortable with providing!

Here are some tips and resources for responding to a disaster or emergency including tools for self-care and managing stress.

• Responding to Disaster or Emergency
• Responding to Customers Affected by Disaster
• Helping Children and Teens Respond to a Disasters or Emergency
• Disaster Stress and Self-care During a Disaster or Emergency

We would really like to hear from you on how you are using this resource. Please take the time to provide us with as much information as you feel comfortable with providing!

After a disaster or emergency has occurred it is important to address the recovery phase. Recovery is different for different age groups and can be different when addressing the community as a whole.

• Recovery After a Disaster or Emergency
• Helping Children and Teens Recover from a Disasters or Emergency
• Helping Seniors Recover and Stay Well after a Disaster or Emergency: Tips for Families and Caregivers
• Substance Use After a Disaster or Emergency
• Helping You Recover and Stay Well after a Disaster or Emergency
• Having Trouble Coping After a Disaster or Emergency
• Supporting Families After a Disaster or Emergency
• Door-to-Door Outreach Toolkit: A Strategy For Building Community Connections & Wellness Post-Disaster

We would really like to hear from you on how you are using this resource. Please take the time to provide us with as much information as you feel comfortable with providing!

There are some ideas around practical preparedness, emotional preparedness, and some additional information that can help you to prepare for a pandemic and the Stepped Care Model as it applies specifically to a pandemic:

• Practical and Emotional Preparedness for a Pandemic
• Psychosocial Stepped Care Model for a Pandemic

A public health emergency, like the COVID-19 outbreak, can be stressful, especially for people who have a pre-existing medical condition, who are traveling, or are separated from friends and family members at home and abroad. This resource provides some helpful tips for you to use when dealing with challenging situation:

• COVID-19 and Your Mental Health

Children react, in part, on what they see from the adults around them. Coping with COVID-19 calmly and confidently, can help you support your child. Here is a resource that you can use for some ideas to support your child:

• Mental Health: Coping and Connection for Children & Families During COVID-19

We would really like to hear from you on how you are using this resource. Please take the time to provide us with as much information as you feel comfortable with providing!

Social Isolation and Loneliness

Social Isolation happens when a persona has little or not contact with other people. Isolation may be over a short or long period. It’s a physical state of not being around others. Loneliness is a feeling of being alone, empty, or separated from others. It’s an emotional state. It can be felt even when we are surrounded by others. Additional general information is available through our poster.

• Social Isolation & Loneliness Poster

A toolkit that explains more about social isolation and loneliness, who is at risk, impacts, community factors, and recommendations for organizations and communities can be accessed by contacting us for helpful toolkit.

• Social Isolation & Loneliness Toolkit

Other resources that we have are to share and increase community action to address social isolation & loneliness. One way to do this is to host a screening of documentary and include panelists to have a discussion.

We would really like to hear from you on how you are using this resource. Please take the time to provide us with as much information as you feel comfortable with providing!