Where Emergency Management and Disaster Behavioral Health Meet: Through an Emergency Management Lens

Abstract Recent developments in Emergency Management include recognizing the importance of engaging the whole community in all phases of emergency management and the significant impact of language as an identifier on an individual’s perception of his or her role and ability to act and react. This chapter explores the history of the Incident Command System and the National Incident Management System, the Threat, Hazard Identification, and Risk Assessment process, the efforts to engage the Whole Community, and the impact of Positioning Theory on disaster survivors. From a Disaster Behavioral Health perspective, the capabilities of its practitioners are often underutilized and not clearly understood by emergency management. Besides not having a clear place in the Incident Command Structure used by emergency managers, there are several misconceptions about disaster behavioral health predominant in the emergency response field. The author lists five myths, dispels these myths, and provides future recommendations for the integration and collaboration of the two professions.