NIH Awards $1.5 Million Grant to Academy to Train Scientists Nationwide in Post-Disaster Mental Health Research

NEW YORK CITY, July 7???The New York Academy of Medicine and the Medical University of South Carolina have been awarded a $1.5 million grant to establish a Disaster Research Education and Mentoring Center that will train researchers nationwide to rapidly design and implement mental health studies in their communities after disasters or terrorist attacks occur.

The Center, to be co-directed by leaders in Sept. 11-related mental health research at both institutions, will equip more scientists to obtain timely data about populations??? mental health immediately after catastrophic events, and will help to ensure that resources are allocated to people in greatest need. Center staff will work closely with government, health and non-profit agencies so they can better shape health-response policy and delivery of post-disaster relief services. Staff will collaborate with those agencies to ensure they receive the latest accurate, research-based information on which to base physical and mental health interventions.

New center will provide training on post-disaster mental health research.

Mental health needs can vary dramatically in a single city or region based on a range of factors, including age, gender, ethnicity, race, past exposure to traumatic events and level of loss directly related to the disaster, explained Center co-director Sandro Galea, M.D., Dr. P.H., a medical epidemiologist and Associate Director of the Academy???s Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies. That is why it is important to ensure not only that thorough research is conducted, but that those findings are also seen by policy-makers and health service providers who are making decisions that will affect trauma victims.

???Sound disaster research alone is unlikely to influence public policy unless special efforts are made to inform policy-makers about the implications of the research findings,??? said Galea, a leader in post-Sept. 11 mental health research along with Center co-director Dean G. Kilpatrick, Ph.D., Director of the Medical University???s National Crime Victim Center (NCVC). The Center is operational effective immediately and is located at both the Academy and the NCVC. It is supported by a five-year grant from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Nursing Research.

Because terrorist attacks, disasters and other incidents causing mass casualties are expected to occur more frequently in the United States, and most epidemiology researchers are not disaster experts, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) identified research training, expertise, and capacity building in post-disaster health needs as important priorities. This grant to the Academy and NCVC was among two such national initiatives funded by the NIH. The other funded project was awarded to the Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center.

The Disaster Research Education and Mentoring Center (DREM) grew out of a successful collaboration between the NCVC and the Academy following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. This collaboration also involved Schulman, Ronca, & Bucuvalas Inc. (SRBI), a New York City-based survey research firm that will also be part of the Center. The groups teamed on a series of studies???launched just five weeks after the attacks???exploring New Yorkers??? mental health after Sept. 11. The findings have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the American Journal of Public Health and other prestigious peer-reviewed publications. Research results were shared with public policy makers, mental health providers and public health officials in New York and nationwide.

???Together, the National Crime Victim Center and the Academy were able to carry out important work in a timely fashion,??? Kilpatrick said. ???Through the DREM center, we hope to replicate this success and apply what we have learned to help others involved in work after disasters.???

Specifically, the Center will provide practical information, technical assistance, and mentoring to disaster and terrorism researchers. It will build an online database of mental health and epidemiological research measures to quickly bring researchers up to speed on how to design mental health assessment studies. Center staff will also provide state and local governments and health agencies with the best and most current research findings to use for disaster health-response planning and funding allocation, working closely with the Council of State Governments and the American Red Cross following major disasters or terrorist attacks. Researchers will also be able to turn to the Center when they need help to launch epidemiological studies. Galea has already served in this capacity, traveling to Spain to consult with a group of researchers from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid following the March train bombings in Madrid.

The Center will work collaboratively with other organizations interested in improving disaster and terrorism research. So far, these include: the Executive Division of the National Center for PTSD, affiliated with Dartmouth College and led by faculty at the VA Medical Center in White River Junction, Vermont; and, the Terrorism and Disaster Branch of the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, led by faculty at Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center and at the University of California-Los Angeles.

The New York Academy of Medicine is a non-profit institution founded in 1847 that is dedicated to enhancing the health of the public through research, education and advocacy, with a particular focus on urban populations, especially the disadvantaged.

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Posted on July 7, 2004

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Andrew J. Martin
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The New York Academy of Medicine
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