Special on Mental Health in Emergency Management

   The Journal of Emergency Management (JEM) is preparing a special issue addressing the mental health issues surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. JEM seeks manuscript submissions focused on the impact of COVID-19 on individuals, organizations, and first responders with a special emphasis on mental health and trauma during the global pandemic.

    Additionally, we seek papers that address the confounding nature of COVID-19 as it relates to other disasters faced during the pandemic and the short and long-term mental health effects on the emergency management profession, the related disciplines and laypersons in your community.

Details

    Over the past 14 months, the world has been turned upside down as we encountered COVID-19 and dealt with all the issues adjoining it. One of the biggest impacts has been on people and their mental health and their ability to deal with the constant onslaught of information and images. This pandemic struck quickly and left much of the nation rocking back on its heels.

    The mental health issues impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals, families, and communities will not end once a vaccine is introduced. It will be experienced for several years to come. Trauma not transformed is trauma transferred. The speed at which this pandemic arrived on the scene and the apparent lack of attention to the mental health needs of those suffering through this pandemic has created a recipe for continued distress. There is a clear need for encouraging collaboration and finding ways to address these issues.

Journal of Emergency Management invites manuscripts directly related to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are particularly interested in the following areas:

• Mental Health Care for Emergency Management and Affiliate Professions

• First Responder Impacts

• Compassion Fatigue

• Depression

• Suicide Rates and Prevention During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Managing Staff and Laypersons with Comorbid Substance Use Disorders

• Secondary Trauma

• Researching and Retooling Emergency Messaging and Communication to Reduce Stress

• Serial Traumatization from Broadcast and Social Media and Rationalization/Sensemaking

• Social Isolation and Confinement

• Vulnerable Populations

• Patients Suffering from Psychiatric Disorders and/or Lack of In-Person Caregiver Access

• Mental Health Disparities

• Trauma, and Resilience in the Wake of COVID-19

• COVID and Nationwide Protests

• International Impacts

• Pandemic Planning

• ** We will work collaboratively with IAEM and their #IAEMSTRONG campaign

• We will consider any manuscript that creates/delivers tools to reduce items listed above.

     We will conduct a quick initial review of submissions to assure a fit with the type of articles published in this special issue. Those manuscripts selected for further consideration will undergo an accelerated peer review and be fast-tracked for publication if accepted. Authors will be expected to revise manuscripts promptly. Our goal is to get excellent papers dealing with the topics above into the hands of people who need additional tools to address the mental health aspects of COVID-19. If you want to be considered for the pool of reviewers for this special issue, please send an email of interest and if available, your CV or short resume to the JEM mailbox below. 

Manuscript Submission

Manuscript should be submitted directly to the Journal of Emergency Management email box at jem@pnpco.com. Note this is different than our traditional journal peer-review system.

** Deadlines:

 Manuscript submissions will be accepted through the end of Q2-2021 and will be placed in open access in the special issue of our online edition of JEM.  

 ** Article Types:

 We will review articles across the spectrum as original papers, research, best practices, creative solutions, short stories, training, brief communications, short reviews of existing programs as well as creative mental health management, coping  and stress reduction original papers. Additional documented modalities for managing the topics above will be reviewed with the goal of sharing useful cutting edge tools to improve and/or address mental health of colleagues and laypersons in your protection. We are happy to preview any submissions.

 ** Article Length:

 Our traditional article length limit is 3500 words. We will address length limitations on a per article basis.

 ** Additional Media Formats:

 We will accept non-paper based submissions (video, powerpoint, etc) as long as they include the standard JEM abstract format, all citation details, and all rights are cleared and assignable. Please contact our office with more details.

 Questions may be directed to the email above or you may contact our offices at 781-899-2702 Ext 114 or 108, Monday - Friday, 9am-4pm EST.