Lessons From The Field: The EHN Mass Casualty Behavioral Health Response Framework
By definition, the World Health Organization defines mass casualty incidents (MCIs) as “an event which generates more patients at one time than locally available resources can manage using routine procedures” (see Mass Casualty Management Systems). There were already 33 mass shootings by the end of January 2022, following 693 in 2021 (see Gun Violence Statistics). This doesn’t take into account the impact of events such as the Astroworld Festival in December 2021 that left 10 dead and hundreds injured or the November Wisconsin Christmas parade when the driver of an SUV took the lives of five people and injured 48 (see Mass Casualty Incidents). While communities often prepare for the medical emergency that follows, the need for simultaneous community behavioral health services is often overlooked.
On August 3, 2019, a mass shooting occurred at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, resulting in the death of 23 people and numerous injuries. Emergence Health Network, El Paso’s mental health authority, stepped in to assist a community in pain. Join Kristen Daugherty, Emergence Health Network (EHN) chief executive officer, as she discusses EHN’s experience and response to the event with Joe Naughton-Travers, OPEN MINDS Senior Associate.
Executive attendees will learn:
- EHN’s recommendations for building a culture of preparedness for behavioral health response to criminal mass violence
- Staff considerations during the crisis response
- Best-practice in developing a Mass Casualty Behavioral Health Response Framework
Featured Speakers
-
Kristen Daugherty, Chief Executive Officer, Emergence Health NetworkKristi Daugherty, CEO for Emergence Health Network, has over twenty years of experience in the behavioral health arena. Ms. Daugherty is a Licensed Clinical Social Work Supervisor in the State of Texas and a Licensed Independent Social Work Supervisor in the State of New Mexico. As CEO for El Paso County’s Mental Health/Intellectual Developmental Disabilities Authority, Ms. Daugherty is responsible for all clinical and oversight services delegated through performance contracts with Texas Health & Human Services as well as a full array of behavioral health services. Ms. Daugherty has spearheaded initiatives that have significantly increased scope of services, added key components to the system of care, improved financial indicators, enhanced quality measures and focus on patient data analytics to improve overall health. Ms. Daugherty has led efforts to form critical community collaborations that have resulted in expanding access points to behavioral health services and expansion of services, including partnerships with local school districts, the hospital district, law enforcement and the local housing authority. Emergence Health Network holds accreditation with the Joint Commission and National Committee on Quality Assurance (NCQA) and is designated as a Certified Community Behavioral Health Center(CCBHC). -
Joe Naughton-Travers, Senior Associate, OPEN MINDSJoseph P. Naughton-Travers, Ed.M., Senior Associate, has more than 30 years of experience in the health and human service field, joining the OPEN MINDS team in 1998. Mr. Naughton-Travers brings to OPEN MINDS a broad range of experiences in private and public sector delivery of behavioral health and social services. During his career, he has served as a behavioral health clinician, a senior manager for a psychiatric hospital system and its community mental health clinics and was vice president of a firm specializing in information systems and billing and receivables management for community-based mental health programs. As an OPEN MINDS Senior Associate, Mr. Naughton-Travers has developed business solutions for provider and professional organizations, state and county government, technology companies, and venture capital firms. His primary areas of expertise include strategic planning and metrics-based management, electronic health record (EHR) and technology selection and implementation, operations improvement, and corporate compliance.
[elite-event]