Page 180 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience

Making Referrals 149

legislative guidelines outlining the ways families would be provided ser-
vices in future incidents.
The Aviation Family Disaster Assistance Act of 1996 mandated the
National Transportation Safety Board to designate a human services
agency to be responsible for the provision of care to friends and families of
aviation disaster victims. The American Red Cross was the agency identi-
fied. Because of the requirement for the American Red Cross to coordinate
and manage the organizations and personnel that provide counseling,
spiritual and other support services, disaster mental health workers and
spiritual care providers began working together with greater frequency.
Fairly quickly, they recognized that collaboration with one another allowed
for more comprehensive care for those in need. From lessons learned at
this and the many other disasters, which have occurred since then, and
the implementation of guidelines developed together, the building of a
partnership between spiritual care and mental health in the United States
expanded dramatically across the nation and across the globe.
The Hawaiian Red Cross disaster mental health program has col-
laborated with disaster spiritual care for many years, most notably in
the Hurricane Iniki response in September 1992, the Sacred Falls land-
slide in May 1999, and the mass casualty shooting at the Xerox build-
ing in November 1999 evidence the effectiveness of the interdisciplinary
team. In New York, the relationship between spiritual care providers
from Disaster Chaplaincy Services and disaster mental health workers
from the American Red Cross in Greater New York was solidified during
many months of working side by side during the 9/11 World Trade Center
disaster response. Both at the site and at local centers set up around the
area, many of which were places of worship, trained spiritual care, mental
health teams, as well as great numbers of spontaneous volunteers offered
services in a multiplicity of areas, working together to provide whatever
physical, emotional, and spiritual comfort they could. Since that time, the
two response groups have worked together regularly at fatal fires, trans-
portation incidents, and other disaster events in which people are experi-
encing emotional and spiritual distress.

Data

In diasaster work, there are many challenges inherent in collaboration
between two distinct disciplines. Mental health workers and spiritual care
providers have different orientations and speak different “professional