MU disaster center to boost mental health training

The University of Missouri has started a research center on disaster and terrorism in hopes of boosting training for mental health workers.

Assistant communications professor J. Brian Houston recently received a $2.4 million federal grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. He wants to study the long-term emotional turmoil faced by disaster and terror victims.

The center will employ a university social worker to train school teachers and counselors in Joplin, Kansas City, St. Louis and New Orleans in crisis intervention.

The four-year grant continues through September 2016.