Crises do not occur in cultural vacuums, but help often does. Good intentions are not enough. Lack of cultural understanding, sensitivity, and competencies can hamper and even harm the professional response to disasters. To help and heal, one must know and understand the cultural background of disaster victims. Ethnocultural Perspectives on Disaster and Trauma offers readers substantive knowledge in these three vital areas of disaster response.

In this pioneering volume, experts on individual and collective trauma experience, posttraumatic stress and related syndromes, and emergency and crisis intervention share knowledge and insights on the cultural context of working with ethnic and racial minority communities during disasters. In each chapter, emotional, psychological, and social needs as well as communal strengths and coping skills that arise in disasters are documented for major minority groups in the United States including specific chapters on African Americans, Native Americans, Arab Americans, Asian Indians, Chinese Americans, Caribbean Americans, Latin Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Vietnamese Americans. Each chapter features information on: Demographics, major historical events, and core values of each population; Important cultural insights, including communication styles, culture-specific disorders, and valid assessment instruments; Therapeutic and healing traditions versus conventional medicine and therapy; Perspectives specific to the populations experience with disaster and trauma; Authors recommendations for improving services to the population; Practical appendices for readers new to the field.

This unique volume is a cultural competency compendium that will increase to the effectiveness of all who respond to disasters. It will also be of interest and value to scholars, policy makers, and health professionals working in the areas of disaster management, crisis intervention, and trauma. Ethnocultural Perspectives onDisaster and Trauma points readers to what the editors call the path beyond simple assistance to healing and the restoration of hope and meaning.

Background and Foundations.- Essential Concepts and Foundations.- Promoting Disaster Recovery in Ethnic-Minority Individuals and Communities.- Ethnocultural and Racial Group Considerations.- Meeting the Physical, Psychological, and Social Needs of African Americans Following a Disaster.- Essential Information for Disaster Management and Trauma Specialists Working with American Indians.- Arab Americans: Understanding Their Challenges, Needs, and Struggles.- Asian Indians: Cultural Considerations for Disaster Workers.- Caribbean Blacks: (Haitiains, Jamaicans, Virgin Islanders, Eastern Caribbean) Responses to Disasters in Cultural Context.- Chinese Americans: Guidelines for Disaster Mental Health Workers.- The Kanaka Maoli:Native Hawaiians and heir Testimony of Trauma and Resilience.- Mexicans, Mexican Americans, Caribbean, and Other Latin Americans.- Working with Vietnamese Americans in Disasters.- Culture, Trauma, and the Treatment of Post-Traumatic Syndromes: A Global Perspective.