ABSTRACT
Terrorist activities in 2001 challenged the United States of America to learn new ways of preparing and responding that would provide a sense of safety and security to the public (Hyams, Murphy, & Wessely, 2003). Increased information has been provided to improve community preparedness, such as encouraging families and schools to have plans for an emergency that include food and water supplies, activities for children, medications, flashlights and batteries, contact information, and reunification plans if children and parents are not co-located. The “new normal” has required extensive collaborations across culturally and organizationally disparate systems such as law enforcement, emergency management, public health, clinical laboratory, mass media, education agencies, and medical response systems from all levels of public enterprise. Priority in health planning has focused initially on the acute investigational challenges and medical treatment or prophylaxis, and secondly on the surge capacity to provide scalable medical and public health responses. However, the events of September 11, 2001 (hereinafter referred to as 9/11) highlighted the need for a well-coordinated public mental health response system (Hyams et al., 2003; Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2003).
