Psychosocial, ecological, and community perspectives on disaster response

Abstract Psychological intervention has grown in little more than a decade from an occasional afterthought in disaster response systems to a thriving enterprise; with that growth, however, have come features that sometimes resemble cottage industries, social movements, or, in extreme cases, evangelical cults. The social history of this evolution is reviewed from the perspective of participant observers, and the issues and implications of recent research are considered in the context of integrated models of theory, research, and application.