TPC-Journal-V5-Issue4

The Professional Counselor /Volume 5, Issue 4 438 a popular topic in the professional literature (Alvarez, 2015; Ohrt & Cunningham, 2012; Thompson, Frick, & Trice-Black, 2011; Witt & McNichols, 2014), and mental health workers in New Orleans emphasized assessment of trauma among counselors for up to two years after a disaster. The most significant disagreement among mental health professionals concerned whether it is advisable to join in collaborative efforts or partnerships with other agencies after a disaster. While one mental health professional said that collaboration is a key to recovery, and two counselors supported this idea, another mental health professional said that collaborative partnerships have the potential to support incompetence and ruin inter-organizational relationships. A third mental health professional warned that mental health agencies should not chase or accept time-limited funding after a disaster, and should not expand services based on funding that will soon disappear. One mental health professional indicated that collaboration was touted as the best recovery tool by many after Hurricane Katrina and acknowledged that the concept of collaboration after a disaster could be a win-win for organizations leveraging their collective expertise into post-disaster response and recovery. This mental health professional said that organizations outside the community often want to create a collaborative partnership after a disaster by providing trauma intervention or counselors for a local agency at no cost. However, such offers could possibly be exploitive. Often the intervention offered is not evidence-based, and the outside organization wants to use the agency as a way to increase its own credibility or perhaps raise funds because its employees are responding to the needs of the community after a disaster. Furthermore, this mental health professional warned that university professors who want to conduct research are often more interested in increasing their scholarship productivity than helping a mental health agency recover from a disaster. Counselor educators should of course avoid exploiting disaster situations for the sole purpose of increasing their research publications. Counseling agency administrators need to be cautious after a disaster when they are approached about participating in proposed research or service projects. One mental health professional gave the following advice regarding response to outside organizations or individuals who want to help after a disaster: I would create collaboratives that are measured in three or six month intervals when every party can check in and decide if the partnership is still working for them. The more difficult questions can come when one of the collaborative partners is not working to their potential, or is undermining the project unintentionally or intentionally. These are often ugly and very difficult situations to solve, and I don’t have much advice on these situations other than to be transparent and honest and to communicate your concerns with leadership when you see these situations on the horizon. (Anonymous, personal communication, May 28, 2015) This mental health professional suggested asking hard questions of potential collaborative partners, including, “What’s in it for you? What’s in it for us? How long will you be around? What’s your long- term plan after one or two years? How do we continue this after you are gone? How will your success be measured? Who do you report to and what’s their expectation of this collaborative?” Recommendations on Preparing for a Disaster Mental health professionals offered a host of general and specific recommendations regarding how agencies should prepare to face a disaster like Hurricane Katrina in the event that such a disaster should occur. General recommendations included ensuring that an agency is well-managed before a