Disaster Mental Health Surveillance at State Health Agencies: Results from a 2013 CSTE Assessment

BACKGROUND: In 2012–2013, the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE), in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), conducted a nationwide, disaster mental health (MH) surveillance needs assessment. The assessment aimed to characterize important aspects of state preparedness for a post-disaster MH response. The assessment tool included 36 questions covering five main topic areas: (1) relations between public health (PH) and MH personnel outside of a disaster or disaster planning, (2) disaster preparedness planning related to PH and MH, (3) disaster response, (4) disaster recovery, and (5) response evaluation and after-action assessment.  

METHODS: CSTE administered the Web-based assessment to the State Epidemiologist in 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia during January 2013 using SurveyMonkey. Forty-one of the 51 jurisdictions completed the assessment for an 80% response rate.  

RESULTS:  This assessment identified areas of collaboration between PH and MH, but also confirmed that much work is needed to increase surveillance for MH needs during disaster response and recovery. States reported many barriers to conducting MH surveillance, including: funding, insufficient staff capability, lack of communication and collaboration between PH and MH programs, and lack of standardized practices and questions to assess MH needs following an emergency. Respondents indicated strong support for including MH questions in national surveys such as the NHIS and for integrating MH surveillance into state-based population surveys (e.g., BRFSS) and other state and local health surveys. This level of awareness and support suggests opportunities to promote the use of standardized MH questions in surveillance systems, thereby allowing for improved assessment of MH impacts attributable to emergencies.

CONCLUSIONS:  CSTE has convened a Working Group in conjunction with its Disaster Epidemiology Subcommittee to help implement the recommendations that came from the needs assessment.