Responding to Community Crisis (IN: Handbook of Post-Traumatic Therapy, edited by M B Williams & J F Sommer)

The introduction to this chapter describes the formation of the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA). The following sections describe the circumstances under which a NOVA Crisis Response Team becomes involved in community crises & what a team does in the community. Topics include: definitions, pre-disaster preparation, the goals of a crisis response team, levels of service, guidelines for selecting team members, roles of team members, behavioural guidelines for team members at the site, when the disaster happens, & post-disaster follow-up.