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How Resilience is Key to Rebuilding Communities After Disaster

These authors argue that a distress situation like a disaster event can give rise to a five-step stress response. Unlike Green and colleagues’ model , this model was comprehensive in the sense that it explained PTSD as a straightforward psychological consequence of disaster events rather than from the perspective of disasters being traumatic events per se. However, although the symptoms decreased over time, the levels did not return to normal, and many individuals were still affected many years after the precipitating disaster . In support of this model, Green and Lindy performed a literature review of studies on different disaster types, such as volcanic eruptions, floods, and landslides, and their impact on mental well-being . These factors together determine whether an individual can successfully process the disaster event and the nature of the psychological outcome, i.e., PTSD. This processing takes place in the context of various personal (e.g., previous psychological issues and coping style) and social (e.g., social support and socioeconomic status) factors.

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  • To further test the adequacy of the proposed model, we tested an alternative model where we reversed the role of assumed predictors and outcomes; that is, we tested whether mental health and life satisfaction were related to psychosocial resource loss, and through that to the levels of resources.
  • But research has shown that transferring wisdom and adaptive strategies from older to younger generations can help bridge these gaps, fostering resilience across age groups.
  • The resilience training includes psychoeducation, cultural resources, and emotion regulation strategies.
  • Please permit me to comment on that, because I don’t think that the goal is to come up with one definition for resilience.
  • Consequently, in response to the same disaster event, people manifest different psychological symptoms over different timelines.
  • Dr. Southwick posed a series of questions about resilience to each of the panelists.

These layers of connectivity ultimately empower you, fostering communities where endurance and adaptability are not mere aspirations, but realities for a sustainable future. Moreover, ensuring a continuous dialogue through services like Youth Development and Housing and Shelter broadens impact and addresses nuanced local needs. By contributing to and benefitting from such initiatives, you and your community play active roles in a broader tapestry of connected and resilient societies. When inclusive strategies are combined with targeted efforts in housing and shelter provisions or recovery initiatives in areas like Ukraine, the impact can be transformative. This proactive stance ensures that when calamities strike, the fallout is less severe, and recovery is swifter and more comprehensive—an overarching goal for those focused on fostering secure and thriving environments.

resilience after disasters

Priority: Reestablish Services for Community Members with Preexisting Behavioral Health Disorders

resilience after disasters

The program was designed for health care workers to reduce psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic and to prevent its long-term consequences. The intervention covers knowledge about diagnosing COVID-19, handling and safety precautions with infected patients, and psychological support including mindfulness-based stress reduction. The Individualized Short-term Training Program is a self-help program that is combined with psychological support targeting depression and anxiety symptoms of emergency nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. A significant decrease in depressive and anxiety symptoms was found at one-month follow-up in the cCBT + treatment as usual (TAU) group compared to a TAU-only group (psychological assessments, psychological support, consultations about well-being, and COVID-19). CCBT aims to reduce acute psychological distress and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and insomnia in adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are also a number of reviews that summarize interventions for individuals with a diagnosed mental health disorder, such as PTSD, e.g., 16,17.

resilience after disasters

For example, what specific economic processes are important in making a community resilient? A recent publication on subjective understandings of resilience-oriented interventions suggests similar ambiguity exists with the concept of ‘resilience’85. Until we resolve this basic question, attempts to measure or enhance resilience will remain discordant and inefficient, while the academic literature will continue to be confused by papers assessing different concepts but using the same terminology.

In the 1980s and 1990s, several well-designed studies were conducted that provided the first extensive data on the prevalence of PTSD and other psychological problems among disaster-exposed populations . The methods of the earliest https://www.futurity.org/mental-health-providers-covid-19-2351902-2/ disaster studies were largely based on observation, anecdote, and clinical interviews combined with symptom questionnaires or psychological tests . Chiu and colleagues provided a potential explanation for this comorbidity; these disorders are psychological consequences or reactions of traumatic event exposure (e.g., disaster), and the overlapping symptoms among these disorders account for their co-occurrence . We already know that, following a disaster, the majority of people do not develop psychological issues and cope well, recovering to their previous level of functioning 19,91.

resilience after disasters

While some accept their changes and losses, others develop resentment and anger, leading to an exacerbation of underlying mental distress 3,4,5. The prior evidence indicated that people who faced short-term job loss, temporary relocation, or were unable to take their belongings during an evacuation demonstrated a high prevalence of PTSD manifestation, depression, and anxiety 33,168,169. In comparison, the indirect experience of a disaster in this stage may constitute evacuation, temporary job displacement, disruptions in daily routine, etc. The direct experience with that disaster may be traumatic (e.g., escaping as the fire bears down, or almost drowning in the flood water) and as such can function as a source for PTSD or a PTSD-like reaction downstream.