Crises do not occur in cultural vacuums, but help often does. Good intentions are not enough. Lack of cultural understanding, sensitivity, and competencies can hamper and even harm the professional response to disasters. To help and heal, one must know and understand the cultural background of disaster victims. Ethnocultural Perspectives on Disaster and Trauma offers readers substantive knowledge in these three vital areas of disaster response.

In this pioneering volume, experts on individual and collective trauma experience, posttraumatic stress and related syndromes, and emergency...