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 both 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 the first responders during their shift change and also 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 in 1998 received the Crime Victim Service Award from the United States Department of Justice.As the years went by, at the request of ODMHSAS and the Oklahoma Department of Health, John and Tom continued to work together training professionals in disaster mental health services and deploying to disasters. Both joined the Oklahoma Medical Reserve Corps. There they met Loren Stein, who, since 2007, has been the Oklahoma Medical Reserve Corps Education Coordinator. In 2009 John and Tom began the OKMRC Stress Response Team, a nationally accredited unit of the Medical Reserve Corps. (In 2015 this unit received a Certificate of Recognition from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for contribution during the 2015 Oklahoma tornados.) 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.
Disasters strike every year.
In fact, Oklahoma has more presidentially declared disasters per capita than any other state in the union. During these disasters John, Tom, and Loren deployed, and during these deployments met 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, no remuneration of any kind. 100% of our donations go to further our charitable goals of training and the provision of disaster-related behavioral health care services.