Dealing with Natural Disasters from a Mental Health perspective

Natural disasters are an inevitable part of human life. It is therefore important to learn from previous disasters as a way of preparedness to manage the aftermath of such disasters.

As disasters increase worldwide, there is greater need for effective and expedient disaster mental health response. In the last two years we have had two major world disasters in the Asian continent; the Tsunami in South East Asia and the other earthquake in China. Lately we have had more earthquakes in world, the worst of which is the one the world is dealing with currently in Haiti.

In America there have been tornadoes and fires that have caused loss of lives and left many devastated. One can therefore say that we live in a very troubled world today. While the effect of personal crisis is nonetheless painful or traumatic for the individual, the disasters that occur on a larger scale may need a different approach from the mental health professional. In the case of a huge disaster, the environment could be best described as chaotic.

In an article titled “Survivors of Natural Disasters and Mass violence” the authors consider three issues often asked by survivors which are; what psychological problems one is likely to experience as a result of surviving a disaster, 2ndly, factors increasing the risk of readjustment problems, and 3rdly things survivors can do to reduce the risk of negative psychological consequences and how best to recover from disaster stress.

The authors of the article discuss these issues at length and suggest that matters that may increase risks of adjustments problems are witnessing or experiencing the following events:

1) Life threatening danger or physical harm (especially to children)

2) Loss of loved ones and friends

3) Exposure to gruesome death, bodily injury, or dead or maimed bodies

4) Extreme environmental or human violence or destruction

5) Loss of home, valued possessions, neighborhood, or community

6) Loss of communication with or support from close relations

7) Intense emotional demands (e.g., rescue personnel and caregivers searching for possibly dying survivors or interacting with bereaved family members)

8) Extreme fatigue, weather exposure, hunger, or sleep deprivation

9) Extended exposure to danger, loss, emotional/physical strain

10) Exposure to toxic contamination such as gas or fumes, chemicals, radioactivity (Young, Bruce et al,2007)

Read more: http://www.bukisa.com/articles/232732_dealing-with-natural-disasters-from-a-mental-health-perspective#ixzz0xdyatLiM