The experience of the September 11th terrorist attacks has established the need for a trained behavioral health disaster response team as a necessary component of every federal, state, and local community emergency plan. Skilled behavioral health responders provide an indispensable service to survivors, families, emergency responders, and other community members. The Massachusetts Departments of Mental Health and Public Health, in collaboration with the Center for Multicultural Mental Health at Boston University School of Medicine/Boston Medical Center, has developed a behavioral health disaster response training program for individuals interested in becoming volunteer crisis responders for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This training is offered to mental health and substance abuse providers along with psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, psychologists and other licensed and non-licensed interested individuals that have had little or no training, but want training to become a behavioral health disaster responder (BHDR). It is recommended that individuals have some experience working in mental health or substance abuse services, but individuals with natural helper or specialized skills are encouraged to attend.

This training program incorporates evidence-informed, best practices learned from recent human-caused and natural disasters. The training program is offered in two 7.5-hour sessions. Day One, called BHDR-101, provides an educational overview of the human impact of disaster, phases of recovery, and intervention strategies. Individuals who have little or no prior experience as crisis counselors must complete both training days to become a behavioral health disaster responder. Those who have previous training as crisis counselors need only complete the second day of the training session, called BHDR-202. BHDR-202 is a skill-building, hands-on experiential day where new techniques are practiced and learned.

After completing BHDR-202, all participants are required to complete the free national Incident management System (NIMS) online self-training, or an accredited ICS-100 class locally to obtain NIMS certification (or an ICS-100 certificate) as a pre-requisite to becoming a certified BHDR. The NIMS training can be found at www.training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS700.asp.

To register for the BHDR training go to: www.bu.edu/cme