Dealing with disasters

Disasters, by their nature, are unexpected and often occur when services are least able to respond, such as the tsunami on Boxing Day in 2004. Therefore, the ready availability of resource material is particularly important in disaster management. Due to recognition of the importance of well coordinated and planned recovery programs, there is also growing interest in providing structured academic courses in the disaster field. For these activities, the Textbook of disaster psychiatry is a high-quality, welcomed edition to an already competitive stable.