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7 - Disaster Mental and Behavioral Health

from PART I - CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND STRATEGIC OVERVIEW

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2011

By
Dori B. Reissman ,
Merritt D. Schreiber ,
James M. Shultz  and
Robert J. Ursano
Edited by
Kristi L. Koenig  and
Carl H. Schultz
Kristi L. Koenig
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine
Carl H. Schultz
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine
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Summary

OVERVIEW

Communities exposed to disasters experience multiple traumatic events including threats to life, loss of property, exposure to death, and often economic devastation. Disasters by definition overwhelm institutions, health care, and social resources and require from months to years for both individuals and communities to recover.

In the aftermath of disasters, human-caused or otherwise, a range of behaviors and symptoms emerge with profound clinical and population-level public health implications. A number of terms have been used to describe the social, psychological, and emotional health of affected populations in the aftermath of disasters and acts of terrorism. “Behavioral and mental health” has emerged as the phrase meant to embrace the broad range of human reactions to disasters. The use of the term “behavior” captures the actions people take to reduce perceived threats to safety, health, and well-being. These coping behaviors also have social and emotional impacts that may alter the extent of loss and change triggered by the disaster or its aftermath.

Characteristics of the disaster event may greatly increase the stress experienced, such as lack of familiarity with the prevailing hazard (e.g., anthrax in the U.S. mail in 2001), use of fear as a weapon (i.e., terrorism), intensity of impact (e.g., degree of direct exposure to harm, loss, and change), predictability of the event (e.g., no warning, inability to avoid, unclear targets, protracted or stuttering course), or caused by human action (purposeful intent to harm vs. accidental).

Keywords

behavioral healthdisaster medical triagedisaster responderspsychological injuriesemerging incident management modelmental health
Type
Chapter
Information
Koenig and Schultz's Disaster Medicine
Comprehensive Principles and Practices
 , pp. 103 - 112
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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