We can only briefly describe here the work with which we have been involved in the international community. If you would like to request training or consultation from the DMHI, email the DMHI or call us at +1-605-677-6575.

In 1996 the IFRC asked the DMHI to collaborate in developing the Federation's Psychological Support Programme. That year we collaborated in the first IFRC training of trainers for psychological support, which was held in Bulgaria. Since then we have consulted with the IFRC Secretariat and the IFRC Reference Centre for Psychological Support, which is housed in the Danish Red Cross in Copenhagen. In 1997 the DMHI and the IFRC signed a Statement of Understanding. Under that SOU the DMHI was assigned to provide consultations and/or training for national Red Cross or Red Crescent Societies in Malta, The Gambia, Kenya, and Turkey. The DMHI was called on to provide a crisis intervention in The Gambia after a "line of duty" death of a first aid volunteer during civil unrest there. The IFRC also selected the DMHI to conduct the external evaluation of the IFRC Psychological Support Programme in 1997-1998. The DMHI helped design and provided an instructor the first Training of Trainers for an international Roster for Psychological Support in 1998, and provided an instructor for the second Training of Trainters in 2000. The DMHI helped author two chapters for the annual World Disaster Report. Dr. Jacobs served as an Assistant Editor of the Coping With Crisis world newsletter from 1997-2002. In 2001 Dr. Reyes was chosen to be one of two authors of the IFRC Community-based Psychological Support: A Training Manual. The DMHI has also placed advanced doctoral students in the Reference Centre as interns beginning in 1999. In 2003 the IFRC/DMHI SOU was renewed, and we look forward to a productive future of collaboration in psychological support.

In 1999, the World Health Organization asked the DMHI to collaborate in the development of a model for assessing the mental health needs of refugees. After two years of work involving nearly all the resources of the DMHI, working together with Mary Petevi of WHO and Jean Pierre Revel of the IFRC, the WHO published the Rapid Assessment of Mental Health of Refugees, Internally Displaced and Other Populations Affected by Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations. In an address to the international consultation on the instrument at WHO's world headquarters, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of WHO, cited the DMHI's contribution to the effort as a model for collaboration between institutes of higher education and WHO, and again cited our contributions in an editorial in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavia.

In 2001, Dr. Jacobs was asked to serve as a psychosocial support delegate in India following the devastating earthquake centered in Gujarat. He served there for 3.5 months. During that time he was asked by WHO to coordinate the psychosocial efforts of all NGO's involved in the relief effort.

Recently the DMHI has begun to collaborate with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, developing training and consultation in psychological support. One of the DMHI's Morgan Fellows is serving an externship there during the Fall, 2003 semester.