(A298) Assessment of Psychosocial Impact of Flood on Children - Indian Experience

Abstract

A Disaster is the tragedy of a natural or human made hazard that negatively affects society or environment. Disaster impacts physical, psychological, social and economic areas of the individual and family and community. Most of the time these are interlinked to each other and its total impact on the survivors is substantial. Children are more susceptible to disaster suffering, and it is noticeable in many complex psychological and behavioral symptoms. On the other hand, the post-disaster psychological effects on children are not recognized and underestimated by the mental health professionals. India is highly prone to natural disasters such as floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes and landslides have been recurrent phenomenon in India. Out of 602 districts in the country, 125 districts have been identified as most hazard prone areas. The recent heavy rainfall and flood between 28^th September to 2^nd October 2009 in the Northern region of Karnataka State caused several deaths and massive destructions. This was the first time that North Karnataka received highest rainfall. The incessant rainfall that poured for four days caused the flood and devastated and destroyed the entire social fabric of the community. Floods carry greater risks to psychological as well as physical health of children. The psychological impact of the floods on children has been carried out both qualitatively and quantitatively. The quantitative assessment was done to assess the severity of floods impact on children using the Impact of Event Scale (Dyregrov and Yule, 1995). The results showed the children showed higher level of intrusion and avoidance aftermath of floods. Boys had significantly higher psychological impact than girls. However, both boys and girls showed moderate to severe level of psychological impact on the domains of intrusion, avoidance and hypervegilence. The implication of the findings are discussed in the context of framing psychosocial programmes.