42 CFR § 38.2 - Definitions.

---
identifier: "/us/cfr/t42/s38.2"
source: "ecfr"
legal_status: "authoritative_unofficial"
title: "42 CFR § 38.2 - Definitions."
title_number: 42
title_name: "Public Health"
section_number: "38.2"
section_name: "Definitions."
chapter_name: "PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES"
subchapter_number: "C"
subchapter_name: "MEDICAL CARE AND EXAMINATIONS"
part_number: "38"
part_name: "DISASTER ASSISTANCE FOR CRISIS COUNSELING AND TRAINING"
positive_law: false
currency: "2026-04-05"
last_updated: "2026-04-05"
format_version: "1.1.0"
generator: "[email protected]"
authority: "Sec. 413, Pub. L. 93-288. The Disaster Relief Act of 1974, 88 Stat. 157, 42 U.S.C. 5183, E.O. 11795, 39 FR 25939, as amended by E.O. 11910, 41 FR 15681."
regulatory_source: "41 FR 52052, Nov. 26, 1976, unless otherwise noted."
cfr_part: "38"
---


# 38.2 Definitions.

All terms not defined herein shall have the same meaning as given them in the Act. As used in this part:

(a) *Act* means the Disaster Relief Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5121, *et seq.*).

(b) *Administrator* means the Administrator, Federal Disaster Assistance Administration (FDAA), Department of Housing and Urban Development, and any other person to whom he delegates the authority.

(c) *Contractor* means any public agency or private mental health organization which, pursuant to this part, contracts with the Secretary to provide professional mental health crisis counseling services or to provide mental health training for disaster workers.

(d) *Crisis* means the existence of any life situation resulting from a major disaster or its aftermath which so effects the emotional and mental equilibrium of a disaster victim that professional mental health counseling services should be provided to help preclude possible damaging physical or psychological effects.

(e) *Disaster workers* means mental health specialists such as psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, social workers, or qualified agents thereof.

(f) *Federal Coordinating Officer* means the person appointed by the Administrator to coordinate Federal assistance in a major disaster.

(g) *Governor* means the chief executive of a State.

(h) *Grantee* means any public agency or private nonprofit mental health organization which, pursuant to this part, is awarded a grant for the purpose of providing professional mental health crisis counseling services or mental health training for disaster workers.

(i) *Major disaster* means any hurricane, tornado, storm, flood, high-water, wind-driven water, tidal wave, tsunami, earthquake, volcanic eruption, landslide, mudslide, snowstorm, drought, fire, explosion, or other catastrophe in any part of the United States which, in the determination of the President, causes damage of sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant major disaster assistance under the Act above and beyond emergency services by the Federal Government, to supplement the efforts and available resources of the States, local governments, and disaster relief organizations, in alleviating the damage, loss, hardship, or suffering caused thereby.

(j) *Regional Director* means a director of a regional office of the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration (FDAA).

(k) *Secretary* means the Secretary of Health and Human Services and any other officer or employee of the Department of Health and Human Services to whom the authority involved has been delegated.

(l) *State* means any of the fifty States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Canal Zone, or the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

(m) *State Coordinating Officer* means the person appointed by the Governor to act in cooperation with the appointed Federal Coordinating Officer.

(n) *Training* means the specific instruction which may be required to enable disaster workers to provide professional mental health crisis counseling to victims of a major disaster or its aftermath.