Mental health professionals are aware of the importance of understanding the kinds of illnesses — such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) — that can result from disasters both natural and human-made. But perhaps even more crucial, according to Robert J. Ursano, is that they understand the behaviors associated with such events.
That was the message of “Psychological and Behavioral Responses to Disaster,” a lecture in the social sciences given in the Radcliffe Gymnasium Tuesday (April 24) by Ursano, who is chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS) at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, Md. In addition to advising state and local governments — as well as federal and international agencies from the Department of Defense to the World Bank — CSTS, established in 1987 as part of USUHS’s Department of Psychiatry, conducts independent research, leads education initiatives, and trains first responders and other mental health workers on disaster preparedness.
Over the years, ‘in working with people who had traumatic events,’ Ursano said, ‘I noticed they ... were one way before the events and another way after.’ 
