Disaster Relief Management — Community Resiliency Model

Helping survivors of Hurricanes Helene and Milton with a public health approach.

Reviewed by Monica Vilhauer Ph.D.

Key points

• The Disaster Relief Mobilization: Community Resiliency Model Program is trauma and resiliency-informed.
• It is critical to incorporate community wellness strategies into disaster planning.
• Children and adults can learn how to stabilize their nervous systems after disasters to reduce suffering.
• Strength-oriented questions highlighting the survival experience can reduce suffering.

The Disaster Relief Mobilization: Community Resiliency Model Preparation Program (DRM:CRM) is a trauma-informed, resiliency-focused initiative designed to support communities before, during, and after a disaster. When disasters strike, they often cause widespread damage to a community's infrastructure, posing significant mental health challenges for children, teens, and adults. Survivors may face the loss of loved ones—family, friends, coworkers, or pets—and the destruction of homes, schools, businesses, and cherished community spaces like coffee houses and community centers. Additionally, the displacement of community members can result in the loss of essential friendship networks that typically provide emotional support. In the aftermath, many experience a profound sense of loss and uncertainty and question whether life will ever return to what it once was. As they rebuild, survivors frequently describe adjusting to a "new normal" during the long recovery process from the disaster’s far-reaching impacts.

Incorporating Community Wellness Strategies Is Essential

Community disaster programs prioritize the essentials of physical survival, such as temporary housing, food and water distribution, and services to assist with long-term housing solutions. Government agencies like FEMA and city, county, and state organizations play crucial roles in these efforts. While mental health professionals are also included in disaster planning, the widespread destruction and loss of life that often accompany disasters can overwhelm available mental health resources, even in developed countries. Therefore, it is critical to incorporate community wellness strategies into disaster planning using a public health approach. Peer-to-peer models, such as the Community Resiliency Model (CRM), provide a scalable way to support emotional and physical well-being, empowering individuals to help one another when professional mental health resources are scarce.

DRM:CRM grew out of the Trauma Resource Institute’s experiences as they were invited to places around the globe after disasters to provide workshops on the Community Resiliency Model’s wellness skills. The Trauma Resource Institute’s first responders expressed being humbled and inspired by individuals worldwide, as survivors reached into the best part of their humanity to help their community with courage and strength during and after the most challenging life experiences. Teaching skills to help individuals calm their internal experience of distress during and after a disaster helps them reorganize to carry out the activities needed to restructure their lives and their community. It can also awaken feelings connected to moments of happiness and hope that can become shrouded because of the catastrophe. It is a quality seen throughout the world—the ability of human beings to remember what else is true during unspeakable times.

Children and Adults Can Experience Physiological Distress After a Disaster

Both adults and children can experience acute physiological distress following a catastrophic disaster, often manifesting as elevated heart rates and rapid breathing. The body may also exhibit intensified physical and emotional responses to various reminders of the disaster. Therefore, helping individuals understand that these physical and emotional reactions are common can shift their perspective from self-judgment—thinking “I am weak”—to recognizing that “I am experiencing a common biological response to the disaster and its aftermath.” Helping people with simple wellness skills that help them learn body literacy can give them a new awareness of how to pay attention to sensations connected to their well-being. By paying greater attention, with intention, to sensations connected to well-being, they can help reduce the reactions to environmental cues that remind them of the disaster. A simple strength-based question like “What, if anything, is helping you get through right now?” can help. If the experience was existential, and the person thought they were going to die, asking “Can you remember the moment that you were going to survive?” and “Can you remember the moment that help arrived?” can help survivors remember what else is true.¹

Strength-Oriented Questions Are Used to Highlight the Survival Aspects of Experience

The DRM-CRM approach avoids pressuring survivors to share their traumatic experiences, as doing so can heighten distress and even re-traumatize some individuals who may not be ready to talk. Instead, survivors are invited to share as much or as little as they feel comfortable, allowing them to maintain control over their narrative. Strength-oriented questions are used to highlight the survival aspects of their experience, rather than focusing on the trauma itself, to minimize physiological distress. This approach helps survivors reconnect with a sense of well-being by emphasizing their resilience and strengths. While it does not dismiss the importance of listening to the traumatic parts of a story, the DRM-CRM approach emphasizes what else is true about the experience, gently reminding survivors of their inner strengths. One woman in the Philippines expressed after Typhoon Yolanda, “Thank you for reminding me of what I already knew but had forgotten.” This statement helps to illuminate the importance of simple questions that help people explore their abilities of strength and well-being.

Proactive and Prevention Strategies

Over time, the Trauma Resource Institute developed a systematic approach for integrating the Community Resiliency Model (CRM) into disaster settings. They discovered the value of training community members before a disaster strikes, turning this into a proactive preparation and prevention strategy. By equipping individuals ahead of time, communities can have "boots on the ground" ready to respond immediately when disaster occurs, creating opportunities to foster both individual and community well-being during the crisis and recovery phases. Additional suggestions on how to support communituy members can be found in How to Help Survivors of Extreme Weather Events.²