Lessons from Katrina: Disaster mental health service in the Gulf Coast region.

In this article, 4 mental health professionals provide firsthand accounts of experiences as volunteers inthe Gulf Coast region following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the fall of 2006. These accounts areprovided with the goal of informing psychologists and other mental health providers about the role ofvolunteers from a frontline perspective. The authors offer these observations as a compliment to formaltraining in disaster preparedness that psychologists might receive for volunteer service in the wake of adevastatingdisaster.Specifically,theauthorsdiscussthetrainingtheyreceived,thesettingsinwhichtheyworked, and the client needs and mental health skills they used to meet those needs. Last, the lessons theauthors learned about providing disaster mental health services are discussed. It is hoped that theseobservations might inspire others to lend their expertise and compassion in response to future cata-strophic events.