Wake of DisasterBR

In the Wake of Disaster: Religious Response to Terrorism & Catastrophe. Harold G. Koenig, M.D. (Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press, 2006) 162 pp. $19.95 (paper)

Harold Koenig, M.D., founder and co-director of Duke’s Center for Spirituality, Theology, and Health, makes another stellar contribution, this time to religion in response to disasters.

He was requested to research this topic by the Center for Mental Health Services of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services doing extensive interviews with secular and religious professionals, using multiple online databases to survey the research literature, and reviewing the DHHS Mental Health All-Hazards Disaster Planning Guide for state mental health authorities. He writes for

people of faith who wish to learn more about disaster preparedness and response, for public policy makers who seek to better prepare their communities for disaster, for emergency response personnel and mental health professionals wanting to know how the faith community can assist them, and for social and behavior scientists studying the role that religious faith plays in coping with nature disaster and acts of terrorism. (ix)

Koenig notes that excluding hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, or acts of terrorism, “each year millions of residents of the United States incur injuries or property damages that result from disasters costing as much as $1 billion a week (xv).” When disaster strikes, faith communities are often the first ones to respond and the last ones standing after the initial excitement is over. However, there is a widespread lack of recognition for what faith based organizations (FBOs) do, of knowledge on the part of secular responders on how to make good use of FBOs, and of awareness in FBOs on how to integrate their efforts with the formal, government agencies in charge of the response. In the Wake of Disaster aims to help remedy these multiple lacks.

Koenig emphasizes research, of which FBOs and secular responders alike are often unaware, that FBOs can provide long term care for crucial trauma issues related to spirituality, meaning, and purpose, in addition to immediate help with food, clothing, and shelter. Emergency Management Systems (EMS) are insufficient to meet the long term, even short term, psychological and spiritual needs of disaster victims. “Those needs require a healing community that understands and, over time, supports and loves them back to health and wholeness (xx).” “Because of the potential long-term impact of unmet spiritual needs on mental health, expert spiritual care following disaster is important. Mental health counselors should screen victims for spiritual needs and refer them to spiritual caregivers as necessary (42).”

Koenig outlines the psychological and spiritual consequences disaster survivors experience in relation to the general phases they pass through, bringing clarity to what forms of grace are appropriate and specific to the immediate situation. He emphasizes that spiritual injuries of those with PTSD must be addressed, and that research clearly shows the ability to undergo stress-related growth is greater in those with religious support.

For FBOs to effectively respond to disasters they must “understand the current activities of national, state, and local groups that form the formal disaster and emergency response system (13):” FEMA, Red Cross, NVOADs (National Voluntary Organizations), NOVAs (National Organization for Victim Assistance), SEMAs (State Emergency Management Agency), SMHAs (State Mental Health Agency), local police and fire departments, hospitals and emergency medical technicians. While all these agencies have their own problems with coordination, it is vital that FBOs know how to interface with them to effectively help with physical as well as emotional and spiritual needs.

Although they might never make the news, FBOs from local churches to denominational organizations such as the Catholic Charities Office of Disaster Response, Friends, Lutheran, and Mennonite Disaster Services, Salvation Army, the United Methodist Committee on Relief, United Jewish Communities, World Vision, and many others have brought massive resources to bear on every known disaster.

Often they are first on the scene, and first able to distribute help because of their local, national, and international networks of congregations, which also minimize administrative overhead costs. They represent 350,000 congregations in America, and 70% of the population. The clergy of these 350,000 congregations routinely contribute counseling that amounts to “140 million hours delivering mental health services each year (44).” Sufferers at disaster sites routinely walk past EMS-provided counselors to talk and pray with clergy. For these FBOs to best deliver their services, and avoid duplication or overlap of services, it is valuable for them to operate under MOUs (memorandum of understanding) with FEMA and other authorized organizations listed above.

The biggest variable in terms of what kind of leadership congregations, pastors, chaplains, and pastoral counselors take in the aftermath of a disaster is the size of the area and its resources. More out-front leadership is given in rural and small town settings with a population under 10,000 than in moderate (10,000-50,000), large (50,000-500,000), or metropolitan areas (greater than 500,000), though metro areas can have sub districts, especially ethnic ones, where key pastors and congregations once again loom large. Again, FBOs are most effective when most prepared in terms of specific disaster needs training, planning, and pre-disaster networking and coordination. Koenig offers detailed help with such training, and implementing local disaster plans.

While Koenig continually emphasizes the need for “integration and cooperation between EMS services, crisis counselors, and faith-based disaster response groups (107),” he is well aware of the barriers that keep this from happening. He zeros in on both inner and outer barriers on the part of the EMS and FBOs, as well as many suggestions for negotiating them. As systems theory suggests, a living organic system is a whole made of parts that is only self-organizing, self-directing, and self-correcting if the parts communicate within the whole. Sadly, Koenig’s top barrier to fostering these connections is not just education, organization, and credentialing, but territoriality.

One might suspect this could be a dry book, citing research on bureaucratic institutions. Koenig, however, does a beautiful job of not just laying out structures and research, but weaving in many concrete and enlivening examples, and voicing numerous nuanced generalizations that get at the core of both local as well as large scale dynamics. He keeps alive the overall point of how important it is to utilize the “nearly 200,000,000 Americans [who] are members of faith communities that are led by nearly 400,000 clergy . . . represent[ing] a largely underutilized, cost-effective army of volunteers (122),” and specialized pastoral counselors and chaplains who are sorely needed now, and as terrorist and climate-based disasters continue to increase in the forthcoming seasons.

Reviewer Gregory J. Johanson, Ph.D. is a retired United Methodist Minister who is Director of Hakomi Educational Resources in Chicago, IL. He is a trainer of Hakomi Therapy and Internal Family Systems Therapy, Adjunct Faculty in the graduate schools of Loyola Univ. of Chicago, and Northeastern Illinois Univ, and Research Faculty at the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute. He is the author (with Ron Kurtz) of Grace Unfolding: Psychotherapy in the Spirit of the Tao-te ching (Bell Tower, 1991) and on the editorial board of six professional journals, including The Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling. He may be contacted at 2523 West Lunt Chicago, IL 60645. e-mail: [email protected].