Behavioral health and disasters: looking to the future

Along with other manmade and natural disasters, oil spills produce profound and long-term impacts on the behavioral health of their survivors. Although previous and ongoing research has focused on producing evidence of the breadth and depth of these impacts, future efforts must begin to translate this evidence into developing and implementing policies, programs, and practices that effectively contribute to their prevention and mitigation. Drawing upon a conceptual framework of the behavioral health impacts of oil spills developed from data collected in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, this paper examines potential interventions designed to prevent or mitigate biopsychosocial, interpersonal, and intrapersonal impacts on behavioral health. Future efforts to translate behavioral health research into effective practice will require the formation and maintenance of academic-community partnerships for the purpose of building resilience to these impacts and providing targeted services to those most vulnerable to their long-term consequences.