Page 42 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience

Fundamentals of Collaboration 11

in a short time, all depending on the nature of the disaster, who is affected,
and preexisting factors. To further compound matters, disasters may
overlap one another, and, as described above, one event may even trigger
a cascade of complex and overlapping reverberations. Disasters are not
discrete events but rather are like overlapping chains of events sliding over
one another, with no clear start and no clear end but a process. While
individual disasters may have more discrete limits, we are always moving
from prior disasters while dealing with the present disasters and prepar-
ing for future disasters. This makes collaboration very tricky.
Collaboration changes in character over time, and what it takes to col-
laborate also shifts, requiring not only preparation but also creativity and
careful consideration to deal with situations as they arise. More concretely,
collaboration is typically easier when a crisis is present, in the immediate
aftermath and short-term response to disaster, because the high level of
necessity creates a strong common purpose, and people both set aside dif-
ferences in the face of necessity as well as make resources available with a
greater generosity than at other times.
This is one beautiful thing about disasters—adverse circumstances often
bring out the best in people, which is as beautiful as it is ugly when good-
will dissipates in the absence of crisis. In the period in between disasters,
collaboration becomes attenuated due to a lowered sense of urgency and
a related scarcity of resources. It is a special challenge between disasters
to maintain networks of responders and to practice and prepare in order
to remain in a state of readiness. However, what may seem like a pointless
waste of time at one moment may in an instant become of paramount and
pressing importance during disaster. In retrospect, it is time, energy, and
money well spent if disaster strikes but, prospectively, a potential huge
waste if no disaster materializes, and no way to know which is which. The
inability to fully predict and the fear of wastage create a state of tension
about allocating resources toward collaborating.

Pragmatic Approaches to Collaboration

I am drawing on my experience working in every phase of disaster, in many
situations of disaster and crisis, to identify what works and what does not
work. These experiences include, among others, working acutely in 9/11
both clinically and academically/administratively; working over 7 years on
ongoing clinical problems and systemic preparedness and response since
9/11; traveling to Louisiana immediately after Hurricane Katrina in 2005