Research Education in Disaster Mental Health

本申请的长期目标是提高灾害心理健康研究的质量和实用性，以便更好地了解和服务灾害受害者。拟议项目的教育目标是通知，指导，建议和指导灾害研究人员。每个教育目标都由两种教育策略来解决，这两种教育策略被表示为主动和被动，这取决于研究教育是否在之前提供（即，独立于）或在焦点事件之后。通过创建一个专门的网站来实现信息目标，在该网站上，科学界和其他感兴趣的各方可以轻松、便捷且一致地获得有关灾害研究最新技术水平的全面和最新信息。教学目标是通过创建和试点教育材料，用于研究生/专业研讨会和灾后研究讲习班，包括一个全面的教科书和一个CD-ROM系列的硕士讲座。通过向寻求关于进行或提议进行灾害心理健康研究的具体方法或实用建议的个人调查人员提供咨询，实现了这一目标。指导的目标是通过实施一项赠款计划，为16个有前途的个人（在项目的过程中）谁开发的兴趣，并显示在灾难心理健康研究的职业能力。该指导计划包括十个方面：（1）教师入职和培训;（2）学员提交研究计划书;（3）导师选择;（4）学员入职/奖学金开发;（5）指导/应用开发;（6）“科学实践”咨询/合作开发;（7）持续监控;（8）问题解决/重新分配（如适用）;（9）小组会议;及（10）开始。该计划的教师由一个全国性的专家小组组成，他们代表了一系列学科观点，研究技能，文化理解和现实世界的经验。一个较小的专业顾问小组帮助该计划在研究和实践的世界之间架起桥梁。为了评估该计划的影响，使用了来自教育，通信和信息科学领域的方法。这些方法包括基于标准的评估、消费者调查和准实验设计等。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term goal of this application is to improve the quality and utility of disaster mental health research so that victims of disasters are better understood and served. The educational goals of the proposed project are to inform, instruct, advise, and mentor disaster researchers. Each educational goal is addressed by two educational strategies denoted as proactive and reactive, depending upon whether the research education is offered before (i.e., independent of) or after a focal event. The informational goal is met by creating a specialized website on which comprehensive and up-to-date information on the state of the art in disaster research is easily, readily, and consistently available to the scientific community and other interested parties. The instructional goal is met by creating and piloting educational materials to be used in graduate/professional seminars and post disaster research workshops, including a comprehensive textbook and a CD-ROM series of master lectures. The advisement goal is met by providing consultation to individual investigators seeking specific methodological or practical advice about conducting or proposing to conduct disaster mental health research. The mentoring goal is met by implementing a grant program for 16 promising individuals (over the course of the project) who develop interest and show aptitude in careers in disaster mental health research. Ten aspects of this mentoring program are described: (1) faculty orientation and training; (2) mentee's submission of research prospectus; (3) mentor selection; (4) mentee orientation/scholarship development; (5) mentoring/application development; (6) "science to practice" consultation/collaboration development; (7) ongoing monitoring; (8) problem resolution/reassignment (when applicable); (9) group meetings; and (10) commencement. The program's faculty is composed of a nationwide panel of experts who represent a range of disciplinary perspectives, research skills, cultural understandings, and real-world experiences. A smaller group of specialized consultants helps the program to bridge the worlds of research and practice. To evaluate the impact of the program, methods drawn from the fields of education, communication, and information science are used. These include criterion based evaluations, consumer surveys, and quasi-experimental designs, among other approaches.