What are Disaster Behavioral Health Response Teams?
Disaster Behavioral Response Teams are New Hampshire`s effort to address the emotional/behavioral needs of our citizens, first responders, and volunteers resulting from a disaster. These teams consist of trained behavioral health professionals who can be mobilized and deployed to offer such services as crisis counseling, brief supportive counseling, assessment and referral, public education, grief counseling psychological first aid and critical incident stress management. Teams have been formed in five regions of the state; training is free. Team members receive training in: concepts of disasters, roles of key agencies, critical incident stress management, assessment and triage, basic crisis counseling and the incident command system among other topics. Upon completion of the training, team members receive official identification recognizing them as Disaster Behavioral Health Responders. Response teams work collaboratively with local, state and federal emergency response agencies, as w
