NTSPP Note:  Dr. Webster and a very small cadre of psychiatrist volunteers carried the load.  Hopefully after psychiatrist disaster training, we can more equitably share the load during future crises and avoid burning out our best and finest.  Thanks to Frank Webster,  Carol North,  and all of you who stoically and heroically served.

From Frank Webster MD:  Hello all, Well, the last evacuees departed for the Houston/Galveston area yesterday afternoon. The clinic was shut down yesterday as well. This was truly an amazing operation that stood up rapidly, provided over 1200 medical service contacts and 120 mental health contacts.

I just want to take a couple of moments and thank a few people. (in no particular order)

 Thanks to everybody who was involved, either in directly caring for people down at the Convention Center, or the good people who worked harder to make those of us able to go down there to provide services. In the mental health area especially, it is crucial to not load up the crisis system when you can provide field services.

Thanks to the folks at Parkland, UT, and Green Oaks who had to work extra hard to cover for me when I was out.

 Thanks to Ray Fowler, Warren, and all of the people at the DCC/MRC/DMOC who are amazingly organized and work so hard to make this type of thing run well despite the inherent chaos an unpredictability.

 Thanks to Dr. North for coming back to take on the leadership in this.

 Thanks to Drs’ Brenner, Jenkins, Bennett, Mohl, Balfour, Rekerdres, Shah, Schwarz, Ghose, Wolf, Lane who worked the majority of the shifts.

 Thanks to the folks at Adapt Crisis Services who were tirelessly (or tiredly) there 24/7. They are an amazing group of people, and did a great job in managing some very difficult people. (thanks especially Tonia and Demetra).

 Thanks to the folks at Transicare (Scott, Angie, Jana…) who were there when needed and would serve basically to cover any whole in the system.

 Thanks to the folks at Dallas Metrocare who took on the pharmacy role, and who provided on site staff for the special needs population, and did a great job.

 Thanks to the folks at ValueOptions (Jack Szczepanowski, Conway McDanald, Sandy Potter, Felicia Spaulding) who took the approach of “whatever it needs to work”.

 Also a special thanks to UNT medical student Kelly Grabbe, who I assumed must have been a senior level resident, given her organizational skills and her ability to fit right in and get to work.

 Thanks to anybody I missed in this. It is truly an amazing thing to be a part of and I am very proud of our community who was willing to step up twice in 2 weeks and serve a population of evacuees (a few of who came up and said hi and thanks from the Gustav evacuation).

 Frank Webster, MD

 Medical Director Psychiatric Emergency Services   Parkland Memorial Hospital/UT Southwestern

 Medical Director Integrated Crisis Services   Green Oaks Hospital