9th Annual Conference

Emergency situations, whether they are caused by a natural disaster, a mass shooting, or political turmoil, are a time of acute trauma and crisis to the communities that are most directly impacted. The efforts of our organization aim to provide backbone support to safely and effectively coordinate and deploy licensed and certified practitioners of complementary and alternative (CAM) modalities to provide acute and long-term care to communities impacted by emergency situations. The need to provide integrative healing services to help abate trauma and build stronger resiliency within communities experiencing emergency situations is great. Climate change is causing more frequent and severe natural disasters to communities around the globe. The correlation between the increased severity of natural disasters due to climate change and physical, emotional, and mental health is clear. This presentation proposes to outline our mission/vision, our experiences providing integrative healing clinics to evacuees and first responders during the Sonoma County and Butte County wildfires, how we established a partnership with the Red Cross, the effectiveness of CAM modalities during emergency situations, the variety of populations encountered at shelters, the opportunity emergency response situations offer to integrative health practitioners to work with the underserved, the challenges and opportunities of offering CAM modalities to first responders, the need for more trauma-informed care trainings for CAM practitioners, the need for self-care for practitioners during emergency situations, the effectiveness of implementing an integrative approach to emergency response care and how CAM modalities can help build resiliency.

The presenter has a Master's Degree in Integrative Health Studies from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and is the Executive Director/Co-Founder of Integrative Healers Action Network, which offers CAM modalities during emergency response situations. She is a group facilitator specialized in mind-body awareness techniques, health education, community organizing, trauma-informed care and integrative health advocacy.

acupuncture, naturopathic medicine, chiropractic care, massage therapy, homeopathic medicine, pain, trauma, insomnia, public health, emergency situations, integrative health clinics, underserved

Presentation/Lecture with Discussion: present information and engage the learners in discussion about the material.

This session is appropriate for all audiences and skill levels