On April 19, 1995, a domestic terrorist blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring almost 900 others.
At that time, Dr. John Call was the Oklahoma City Police Department’s consulting psychologist and a newly appointed member of the Board of Directors of the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS). Tom Thomson was a long time ODMHSAS employee.
Immediately after the bombing, John worked with first responders during their shift change and with family members as they awaited news of their loved ones. As the days turned into weeks, both John and Tom helped design and manage Project Heartland, America’s first community mental health program designed specifically to provide for a community’s behavioral health needs post-terrorist event. This ODMHSAS program continued until 2001, served almost 9,000 people and received the Crime Victim Service Award from the United States Department of Justice in 1998. At the request of ODMHSAS and the Oklahoma Department of Health, John and Tom joined the Oklahoma Medical Reserve Corps and continued to work together training professionals in disaster mental health services and deploying to disasters alonside Loren Stein. In 2009, John and Tom began the OKMRC Stress Response Team, a nationally accredited unit of the Medical Reserve Corps. In 2012 John, Tom and Loren organized and incorporated SRT, Inc., an Oklahoma Not-for-Profit corporation whose purpose is to fund, organize, train, and direct licensed health and mental health care professionals who wish to provide services in the immediate aftermath of disasters.
In 2015, the OKMRC Stress Response Team received a Certificate of Recognition from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for contribution during the 2015 Oklahoma tornados.
Disasters strike every year.
Oklahoma has more presidentially declared disasters per capita than any other state in the union. During these disasters John, Tom, and Loren deploy and meet other outstanding licensed professionals volunteering their time and providing services. Four of these volunteers, Pamela Rollins, Jerry Duncan, Sandra Parker, and Craig Long, graciously agreed to join SRT, Inc. and pledged their combined efforts to achieve its goals.
SRT, Inc. board members receive no pay and no remuneration of any kind. All of our donations go towards furthering training efforts and the provision of disaster-related behavioral health care services.