Disaster Resource Network shifts its focus

One word can change a lot, as the Massachusetts Psychological Association’s (MPA) Disaster Resource Network discovered following a name change in 2016. When the MPA received instructions from the American Psychological Association (APA) to change its focus from being a disaster “responder” to a disaster “resource,” the MPA took a few years to understand exactly what that meant. “COVID hit and that put a pause on a lot of things,” said Claudette Pierre, Ph.D., co-chair of the MPA DRN. “We are very new in terms of redefining ourselves, in deciding how we are going to move forward.” For the MPA DRN, the name change has meant a total restructurin...