Abstract Submission

Mental Health Disaster Preparedness Summit

Road to TUFH 2026 – Pre-Summit Learning Opportunities

As part of the journey toward the Summit, participants are encouraged to engage in pre-event learning experiences to build foundational knowledge and maximize impact:

Disaster and Preventive Psychiatry: Protecting Health and Fostering Community Resilience

A free, self-paced online training offered through the American Psychiatric Association

Psychiatric Dimensions of Disasters – 9th Annual Training Course
 June 12, 2026
Delivered by Disaster Psychiatry Canada, focusing on practical, clinical, and systems-level approaches to disaster psychiatry

 These pre-events provide a strong foundation, ensuring participants arrive at the Summit ready to engage, contribute, and co-create solutions.

Foundations of Disaster Mental Health: Core Concepts, Systems, and Community Approaches 

Gain a clear, practical introduction to disaster mental health, including key definitions, core principles, and the structure of effective community-based responses. This session will provide a shared foundation for all participants, ensuring a common language and understanding to support collaboration, coordination, and real-world implementation in crisis settings.

The MARCCD Model (Modular Approach to Resilience and Community Care in Disasters): Building Coordinated, Scalable Mental Health Responses

Explore the MARCCD model as a structured, systems-based approach to mental health disaster preparedness and response. This session introduces its core components and demonstrates how it enables coordination across sectors, rapid mobilization, and continuity of care in crisis settings. Through expert discussion, participants will reflect on real-world applications, adaptability across contexts, and how the model can be integrated into existing health and community systems.

https://marccd.info/

From Planning to Practice: The Power of Tabletop Exercises in Mental Health Disaster Preparedness 

Discover how tabletop exercises can strengthen coordination, clarify roles, and enhance real-world readiness in disaster contexts. This session will explore the key benefits of simulation-based planning, who should be involved, and how to design inclusive, effective exercises that bring together health systems, communities, and cross-sector partners.

Low-Tech, High-Impact: Delivering Mental Health Support in Crisis Settings (Iryna Frankova – Ukraine Experience)

Learn how effective mental health interventions can be delivered in the most challenging environments using simple, accessible tools. Drawing on frontline experience from Ukraine, this session highlights practical, adaptable approaches that maintain high quality of care, even in low-resource and rapidly changing crisis settings.

Healing Through the Body: Drama Therapy to Address Trauma in War Zones
Presenter: Michael D. Reisman
Organization: Institute for Developmental Transformations
Country: United States

Armed conflicts have increased the demand for mental health services and placed great strain onhealth systems. In Ukraine during the full-scale war with Russia, the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has risen to greater than 50% in the Kyiv region, and
countrywide one in five children experience clinically relevant symptoms of PTSD. A promisingtool for addressing the vast unmet need for treatment is drama therapy, which is the deliberate use of drama and/or theatrical processes to achieve therapeutic goals, including emotional expression and containment, stress reduction, and empowerment.
This interactive workshop will explore group drama therapy techniques used in Ukraine with adults, children, displaced persons, and veterans exposed to traumatic events. The techniques, which focus on playful, embodied improvisation, have allowed individuals to feel a sense of
community, safely express emotions, and reduce stress. The session will begin with a brief overview of drama therapy principles and their application in
Ukraine to set the context. Then we will engage in interactive group work to allow participants to experience drama therapy techniques first-hand. We will have time for discussion about potential
applications.

Workshop format: Lecturette, experiential group process Who should attend: Policy makers and health administrators; representatives of community organizations, non-governmental organizations, regulatory bodies, and medical schools; front
line health workers and community health advocates.

AI in Mental Health Preparedness: Opportunities, Risks, and Responsible Use

Examine how artificial intelligence is shaping mental health support in disaster contexts—from early detection and triage to decision support and scaling care. This session will explore both the potential and the pitfalls, addressing ethical considerations, bias, data privacy, and the risks of misuse, while highlighting how AI can be applied responsibly to strengthen preparedness and response.

Disaster Psychiatry Canada: A Simulation Exercise – Making it Real

As part of the annual Disaster Psychiatry Canada conference, a full morning session of a simulation exercise has been a highlight of the day since 2019.  This intense experiential learning opportunity is co-led by an Emergency Medicine and Psychiatry team and has involved over 150 participants at one sitting working together in teams to create strategies to address mental health challenges for both patients and care providers created by climate change, power outages, threats of violence, and war.   This model of teaching can be offered in person or virtually and can adapt to variable numbers of participants, using additional facilitators.  Incorporating new technology with AI will inform future programming for this exercise.  

Jodi Lofchy, MD FRCPC
Chair, Section of Emergency Psychiatry,
Canadian Psychiatric Association;
Associate Professor, University of Toronto

Laurie Mazurik, MD FRCPC MBA EMDM
Critical Care Transport and Emergency
Physician, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and ORNGE