Ecological Impact

When a natural disaster occurs, the impact can be far reaching. Unlike other types of crises or traumas, natural disasters often affect survivors and the environments in which they live. In such cases, crisis workers may be asked to help survivors find loved ones, apply for federal aid, or acquire temporary housing.

In this Discussion, you will analyze the ecological impact of a natural disaster that has occurred in or near your community or one that you learned about from the media. Then, you will describe crisis intervention strategies and skills that you might have used to respond to survivors.

To prepare for this Discussion:

• Think about how natural disasters might impact exosystems, mesosystems, and macrosystems.
• Consider the impact of natural disasters at the local, state, and national levels.
• Think about how the tornado affected the Benefield family (from the Case Study in Chapter 17 of the course text) and their community. Then, consider the crisis intervention strategies and/or skills employed by crisis workers to respond to individual, family, and community needs.
• Identify a natural disaster that occurred in or close to your community or one that you learned about from the media. (Note: You should not use Hurricane Katrina as an example.) Reflect on how the exosystem, mesosystem, and macrosystem were impacted by the disaster.
• Identify at least one crisis intervention strategy and/or skill you might have used to respond to the disaster you identified. Reflect on how this intervention strategy might address the ecological impact of the disaster.

With these thoughts in mind:

By Day 4

Post a brief description of a natural disaster that occurred in or near your community or one that you learned about from the media (do not use Hurricane Katrina). Then, analyze the ecological impact of the natural disaster you identified. Be sure to provide specific examples of the ecological impact of the natural disaster in your analysis. Then, based on your analysis, describe at least one crisis intervention strategy and/or skill you might have used to respond to the survivors of the disaster and explain why. Be sure to protect the identity of any real persons used in the example. No identifying information should be used.

Be sure to support your postings and responses with specific references to the Learning Resources.