The American Psychological Association-California Psychological Association Disaster Response Project provided valuable lessons about disaster response at the local and state levels. The authors offer guidelines from the experiences of pioneers of organized disaster response and from published accounts on how to set up disaster response networks, the necessary training to become a disaster response volunteer, and how to maintain a disaster response team (e.g., tools needed, psychologists' roles, cultural diversity, and interprofessional camaraderie). Also described are the following: interventions for stress responses from victims, helpers, and children; special problems of social disasters; implications of media presence; and psychologists' roles in educating the public and government agencies about disaster response. Finally, the future of disaster response in the mental health profession is discussed.On October 17, 1989, just as the cameras began to roll for baseball's World Series game at Candlestick Park, the Loma Prieta earthquake shook the San Francisco Bay area, causing widespread damage, ending lives, and sending thousands into a state of panic. The moment had arrived for crisis intervention and for the creation of a long-term disaster response plan. The California Psychological Association (CPA) responded with vigor, and during the next 3 days, over 350 psychologists and other mental health professionals were given disaster training in crisis intervention and management of posttraumatic stress responses (Buie, 1989

No abstract