Hurricane Katrina Hospital Training, New Orleans, LA                                                    2005 

Invited by the Metropolitan Human Services District, Disaster Psychiatry Outreach founder Anand Pandya conducted 5 trainings over two days with staff members of a downtown New Orleans hospital in December 2005.

·        Over 5 trainings and two days, DPO trained 94 hospital staff memberss. 

Mental Health Consequences of Bioterrorism: An Advanced Course for Emergency Room Clinicians                                                                                                               2005  

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC-DOHMH) requested the development and implementation of an advanced training on the mental health consequences of bioterrorism and other public health emergencies for the staff of NYC hospital emergency departments. DPO developed a one and a quarter-hour course for emergency room physicians, nurses and clinical staff based on the feedback from the participants, hospital coordinators and instructors of 2004’s basic course on mental health consequences of bioterrorism provided by DPO for NYC-DOHMH.  

·        DPO trained 540+ clinicians in 39 trainings at hospital all over the city. 

Essentials of Disaster Psychiatry Training,  New York University Farber Auditorium               2005 

After Hurricane Katrina, Disaster Psychiatry Outreach received many requests from volunteers and potential volunteers to conduct training in disaster psychiatry. DPO volunteers Dr. Anand Pandya, Dr. Rebecca Smith, and Dr. Ilisse Perlmutter presented a shortened version of its training at the NYU Farber Auditorium in October 2005. 

·        DPO trained 15 psychiatrists. 

Behavioral Healthcare Management Institute Conference                                                  2005

At St. Vincent’s Hospital in July, 2005, DPO volunteer Danny Garza, MD, gave the keynote presentation at a conference of the New York Chapter of the Association of Behavioral Healthcare Management. 

Essentials of Disaster Psychiatry Training,                                                                    2005

New York University Farber Auditorium

After Hurricane Katrina, Disaster Psychiatry Outreach received many requests from volunteers and potential volunteers to conduct training in disaster psychiatry. DPO volunteers Dr. Anand Pandya, Dr. Rebecca Smith, and Dr. Ilisse Perlmutter presented a shortened version of its training at the NYU Farber Auditorium in October 2005.

·        DPO trained 15 psychiatrists. 

Behavioral Healthcare Management Institute Conference                                                 2005 

At St. Vincent’s Hospital in July, 2005, DPO volunteer Danny Garza, MD, gave the keynote presentation at a conference of the New York Chapter of the Association of Behavioral Healthcare Management. 

Essentials of Disaster Psychiatry Training,                                                                    2005 

Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society

Working with the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society, DPO trained psychiatrists in the Essentials of Disaster Psychiatry in January of 2005.  The course was taught by Drs. Pandya, Katz and Perlmutter.

·        DPO trained 70 psychiatrists.

Mental Health Consequences of Bioterrorism:                                                               2004

A Disaster Preparedness Course for Hospital Emergency Department Staff 

In 2004, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC-DOHMH) contracted DPO to train hospital employees on disaster mental health response procedures. DPO developed a three-hour course for emergency room physicians and nurses that provided a broad overview of disaster mental health and detailed information regarding triage and assessment of patients for whom mental health was the primary reason for reporting to the hospital.

·        Over the course of 18 trainings, DPO trained 696 hospital emergency department staff.

4th International Conference on Disaster Psychiatry                                                        2004

Approaches to Disaster Psychiatry: Good Science or Good Intentions?

The fourth international conference was held at the March 26 and 27th at the Wyndham Miami Beach Resort in Miami Beach Florida. Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals gathered to hear from internationally renowned speakers such as Jack Gorman MD, Beverly Raphael MD, Ruth Barron MD and Carol North MD. The two day event included the newly revised five-hour DPO training course in disaster psychiatry. The course covers various topics including: epidemiology, systems issues, informal therapeutic interventions, debriefings, psychotherapy, psychopharmacology and medico legal issues.

·        85 Participants

APA’s “Disaster Psychiatry Handbook”                                                                          2004

Dr. Pandya wrote a chapter entitled “Medico-legal and Ethical Issues in Disaster Psychiatry” chapter for the American Psychiatry Association’sDisaster Psychiatry Handbook

Disaster Psychiatry: A Closer Look                                                                                         2004

Guest edited by Dr. Katz and Dr. Pandya, this hardcover issue of the journal Psychiatric Clinics of North America provides a broad orientation to psychiatrists and mental health professionals who are new to the field of disaster psychiatry and greater depth to the practice of veteran practitioners.

Disaster Psychiatry: Intervening When Nightmares Come True                                          2004

Anand Pandya MD and Craig Katz MD edited essays from volunteers and colleagues into this book published by the Analytic Press. From the Analytic Press website:

“Editors Anand Pandya and Craig Katz, cofounders of Disaster Psychiatry Outreach, have captured the challenge and promise of disaster psychiatry through first-person narratives. We hear from psychiatrists who have encountered disasters at various stages of their career and in widely varying social, political, and personal contexts. Accounts of psychiatric involvement with adults and children during and after 9/11 have understandable pride of place in this collection. But they are balanced by richly informative narratives about other domestic and international disasters. We have accounts of Kansas and Oklahoma, of "Happy  Land" and  Vietnam. And we hear the stories of psychiatrists who have worked with disaster victims in Australia, El Salvador, India, Turkey, and the Gaza Strip.”

DPO Volunteer Training,BuffaloNY                                                                              2003

DPO medical director Anthony Ng trained psychiatrists in Buffalo, NY on the Essentials of Disaster Psychiatry.

·        DPO trained 13 psychiatrists.

3rd International Congress on Disaster Psychiatry                                                           2003

DPO’s 3rd International Congress on Disaster Psychiatry was held in April of 2003 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Washington, DC. Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals gathered to hear from internationally renowned speakers such as Dennis Charney, MD, Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, Prof. Juan J. Lopez-Ibor, Jr., Lewis Goldfrank, MD, Walter Reich, MD, Robert Ursano, MD, and Rachel Yehuda, PhD

The Two Day event included the newly revised five-hour DPO training course in disaster psychiatry. The course covers various topics including: epidemiology, systems issues, informal therapeutic interventions, debriefings, psychotherapy, psychopharmacology and medico legal issues.

·        200+ participants

2nd International Congress on Disaster Psychiatry                                                          2002

In April of 2002, DPO hosted the 2nd International Congress on Disaster Psychiatry. The former Commissioner of the Department of Health for New York City, Dr. Neal Cohen, who served during and after the September 11 terrorist attacks, was the keynote speaker and addressed the public health response to 9/11. Dr. Cohen was joined by a panel of international experts in the field of disaster psychiatry: Drs Edna Foa, Betty Pfefferbaum, Arieh Shalev, Craig L. Katz, Ken Thompson and Ann Norwood. Speakers at the congress offered a continuing overview of the phenomenology, epidemiology and treatment of psychiatric symptoms and disease in the wake of disasters, with a special emphasis placed on issues related to 9/11. 

The two-day congress concluded with a 3-1/2 hour training course on disaster psychiatry that covered various topics including: epidemiology, systems issues, informal therapeutic interventions, debriefings, psychotherapy, psychopharmacology and medico legal issues.

·        250+ participants

1st International Congress on Disaster Psychiatry                                                            2000

The 1st International Congress on Disaster Psychiatry was organized by DPO and held on October 14, 2000 in New York City. This conference brought together experts in disaster and trauma psychiatry from around the United States in order to introduce the developing field of disaster psychiatry to psychiatrists.  Speakers included:  Drs. Michael Blumenfield, Evelyn Bromet, Mark Dembert, Julie Golier, Clarice Kestenbaum and Jacob Lindy.

·        100+ participants