Disaster Readiness Committee

     Co-chair                                                                                    Co-chair     
                                                                                                 alt

                              Ganaelle Joseph-Senatus, MD                                             Giuseppe Raviola, MD, MPH                 

June 2025 Committee Report 

The Disaster Readiness Committee continues to aim to be a resource for best practices for mental health disaster response in our MA communities. We continue to work on spreading awareness and advancing disaster preparedness through scholarly work, presentations, teaching, and collaborations. Updates since the last Chairs & Council meeting are as follows: 

  1. The committee met on Monday, May 5. Upcoming meetings will be on Thursday, September 18, and Monday, December 1
  2. New members from Brigham and Mass General have joined the committee
  3. Program directors of local residency programs have been contacted to obtain names and contact info of faculty members who teach disaster preparedness
  4. Several members presented posters and led sessions at the 2025 APA Annual Meeting, including an 8-hr long master course on entitled “Disasters and Preventive Psychiatry: Building Your Skills to Care for Patients Through Hurricanes Civil Unrest Pandemics Climate Change and Beyond.”
  5. The committee continues to collaborate with national disaster committees, including the APA Committee on Psychiatry Dimensions of Disasters (CPDD) and the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP).  

Forthcoming to website: Materials on what psychiatrists in MA need to know to respond effectively to disasters, as well as references and resources.