The Center's History

The Center was established in 1987, as a center of excellence for responding to the long-term concerns of the Department of Defense over the substantial health risks resulting from the traumatic impact of:

the possibility, or actual use, of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) during combat, acts of terrorism or hostage events;
combat, peacemaking, peacekeeping, and operations other than war;
natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, or floods; and,
more common stress producing events such as physical assaults and motor vehicle, shipboard, or airplane accidents in both the uniformed and civilian communities.

Prior to Desert Storm, the Center pioneered research on exposure to WMD through its work in Air Force simulation exercises dealing with chemical and biological terrorism. This early work generated an unprecedented body of research, including a database that currently consists of more than 20,000 articles on the psychological, social and behavioral manifestations of exposure to traumatic events. These inferences include mental health responses ranging from resilience to psychiatric illness such as post-traumatic stress disorder, acute stress disorder, and depression. In the 1990s the Center made major contributions to the newly emerging field of disaster mental health and psychiatry. The Center published a landmark book, one of the most scholarly and comprehensive of its time, Individual and Community Responses to Trauma and Disaster. This book and the Center’s work on the effects of trauma on first responders helped shape the landscape of disaster and trauma research, education and consultation. In response to the events of 9/11, CSTS was instrumental in educating leadership at the federal, state and local level about individual and community responses to terrorism. This knowledge drew upon the Center’s early work in the psychological and behavioral implications of exposure to WMD. The Center expanded its research to encompass workplace preparedness for terrorism and disaster, and provided consultation to the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Transportation, a number of Fortune 100 corporations, and numerous government leaders. The Center’s Director, Robert J. Ursano, M.D., was part of an Institute of Medicine committee that authored an influential report and publication, Preparing for the Psychological Consequences of Terrorism. This book recommended the integration of disaster response principles into the public health arena with significant implications around medical and healthcare preparedness and response to large-scale disasters including public health threats such as pandemic.

Since the start of the war on terrorism, the Center has generated and disseminated knowledge on the effects of deployment and combat on soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines and their families. The Center has galvanized nationally renowned academics and medical leadership as well as its own subject matter experts to contribute to new areas of trauma need, such as the impact of combat injury on military healthcare providers, service members, their families and children. The Center has also mobilized its existing resources to examine the prevalence of deployment- related family violence, child maltreatment and neglect that has escalated in the military community since the start of the war on terror. Concomitant with the Center’s advances and involvement in military psychiatry, the Center published in 2007 a landmark book, Textbook of Disaster Psychiatry. This project, the first book to focus specifically on disaster psychiatry, brought together Center colleagues in trauma and disaster from around the globe to provide a comprehensive review of the psychological, biological and social responses to disaster. Now a component center of the Defense Centers of Excellence (DCoE) on Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, the Center is positioned to contribute to the improved psychological health and strength of the military community through its cutting edge research in neuroscience and as a knowledge center for the psychological implications of combat and service to our nation. The Center’s Director, Robert J. Ursano, M.D., Professor and Chairman of USU Department of Psychiatry, is internationally regarded for his academic contributions in the fields of trauma prevention and care, and his leadership in bridging the principles and practice of military and disaster psychiatry to strengthen our nation’s health and public health planning and response to local, regional and national disasters and traumatic events.