<p> Large-scale crises continue to surprise, overwhelm, and shatter college and university campuses. While the devastation to physical plants and persons is often evident and is addressed with crisis management plans, the number of emotional casualties left in the wake of these large-scale crises may not be apparent and are often not addressed with mental health preparedness plans. As a result, there is a growing sentiment that campuses should investigate and document detailed mental health preparedness plans that would address the readiness of their institutions to meet the mental health needs of their faculty, students, and staff should a large-scale crisis impact their campus. In addition, it has been recognized that an instrument is needed to help colleges and universities assess the mental health preparedness of their campuses. Utilizing a Delphi methodology, this four round Delphi study (with 34 experts from 17 states with combined expertise in mental health and higher education) adapted the <i>Mental Health All-Hazards Disaster Planning Guidance</i> (2003), written for state and local mental health agencies, to create a mental health preparedness plan for college and university campuses should a large-scale crisis occur. Utilizing the aforementioned mental health preparedness plan, this study also created an instrument, identified as a numeric scorecard, to help colleges and universities assess the mental health preparedness of their campuses should a large-scale crisis occur on their campus.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:3560035 |
| Date | 01 June 2013 |
| Creators | Burgin, Rick A. |
| Publisher | Dallas Baptist University |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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