Whole-person and Whole-family Approach to Emergency Preparedness and Response

Description

This Virtual Town Meeting, held on June 4, 2025, was sponsored by the Office of Refugee Resettlement and facilitated by the National Capacity Building Project. During this session, the presenters discussed how the SOT population is particularly vulnerable to natural and man-made emergencies. There is urgent need for SOT programs to help clients to prepare for these emergencies by considering impact on the whole-person (bio-, psycho-, social, spiritual) and the whole-family (separation, instability). This session will explore strategies and tools designed to support and prepare survivors of torture.
 
In the first part of the presentation, we will explore aspects of disaster preparedness’s critical components from a technical and operational perspective. Dr. Amber Mehmood will present evidence-based strategies and tools for effective disaster response, including trauma care systems, surveillance tools, and emergency planning.
 
In the second part of this presentation, Centering Families Project Director and Principal Investigator, Dr. Mary Bunn, PhD, LCSW and Project Consultant, Leora Hudak, MA, LCSW will review the Centering Families Resource Guide for Supporting Parents and Caregivers Impacted by Torture. They will discuss the impact of torture on family systems and challenges that parents and caregivers face across the stages of migration. They will also discuss strategies for supporting parenting and caregiving in torture-affected families using a whole family approach.
 
The Centering Families Project is a research, training and technical assistance project led by researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago in collaboration with the National Capacity Building Project. The project aims to promote the health and wellbeing of families impacted by torture and strengthen the capacity of practitioners and SOT programs to integrate high-quality and evidence-based family-based services in their survivors of torture programs using a whole family approach.
 
Learning Objectives
After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Describe the impact of torture on parents and caregivers.
• Identify three strategies that clinicians can use to support parents and caregivers.
• Increase knowledge of resources available for SOT providers working with the parents and caregivers in these families.
• Describe key technical elements of disaster preparedness, including trauma systems, data tools, and emergency response frameworks.
• Examine the operational roles and responsibilities of organizations in disaster scenarios, including coordination, logistics, and community engagement.
• Identify strategies for integrating technical knowledge with organizational response to enhance preparedness and resilience in diverse settings.