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Medical and rescue workers are at risk of developing mental syndromes including post-traumatic stress disorder after disasters and it is widely accepted that they should be offered a preventive intervention. The Israel Defense Force Medical Corps has developed psychological guidelines for the medical forces: a medical team debriefing after treating the injured as a preventive intervention for an event that may be experienced as stressful. The main purpose of the debriefing is to investigate the circumstances of the event, analyze the medical team's functioning, and draw the relevant conclusions and the manner of their implementation. The purpose of the guidelines is to enhance mental coping, possibly prevent stress reactions, and help in screening individuals in need of further professional intervention for stress reactions. These guidelines are suitable for similar interventions in other professional teams.

There is limited information on mental health of psychologists and social workers despite their rendering mental health services, so their subjective perception of mental disorder was explored via a self-evaluation survey in which they self-diagnosed the presence of DSM-IV disorders within themselves. The sample of 128 professionals included 63 psychologists and 65 social workers. The presence of Axis I traits was reported by 81.2%, the three most frequent traits being mood, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and eating disorder. Axis II traits were reported by 73.4% of subjects, the three most frequent conditions being narcissistic, avoidant, and obsessive-compulsive personality traits. While a high percentage of subjects reported the presence of either an Axis I or Axis II disorder, the average severity reported was low. More psychologists reported on mood, social phobia, and eating problems than social workers, while the latter reported more on psychotic problems. Psychologists reported more Axis II traits, especially paranoid, narcissistic, and avoidant subtypes. More women than men reported eating problems, while more men reported schizoid and avoidant personality traits. In conclusion, manifestations of subthreshold psychiatric conditions were prominently reported. These findings suggest encouraging mental health care professionals to explore treatment for problems if present.

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