When the New York City (NYC) Department of Mental Health contracted with the Mental Health Association (MHA) of NYC in 1996 to start a new program called LifeNet, all parties believed that this multi-cultural, 24-hour, seven-day-a-week professional crisis, information, and referral hotline would become an essential vehicle for promoting access to treatment resources around the City. In doing so, they laid the foundation for mobilizing the largest mental health disaster response in the nation's history.
In addition to expanding the hotline's geographic reach beyond the five boroughs of NYC, LifeNet's extended role has encompassed aspects of professional training and outreach to businesses and community groups; central coordination of referrals for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funded counseling program, Project Liberty; and administration of an innovative program, funded jointly by the American Red Cross (ARC) and the September 11th Fund (SEF), for enabling access to mental health and substance treatment for “primary victims” of the disaster.
This chapter will discuss the various roles the MHA of NYC's LifeNet has played in the post-disaster recovery, and review the many lessons learned – thus far – in this ongoing effort.
LifeNet before the disaster
Lesson 1: Before a major disaster occurs, it is a major advantage to have a behavioral health hotline that is already performing functions that are useful following a disaster on a daily basis.
The success of LifeNet's post-disaster experience resulted from its pre-disaster history. By establishing a credible presence in the community prior to September 11th through building relationships with government agencies, law enforcement, social service provider networks, the media, and a multi-cultural public at large LifeNet was poised to take on the broad, multi-level spectrum of challenges unfolding in the wake of this unprecedented catastrophe.