Editorial Comments—Mental Health Problems following Earthquake in Kashmir: Findings of Community Run Clinics

Extract

The article by Chadda et al is particularly deserving in that it describes a universal, social imperative to address the mental health and well-being of affected populations following a horrendous disaster caused by natural hazards. The inclusion of mental health workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists in postdisaster recovery and response efforts is not always feasible, but in recent years the importance of recognizing these professionals as “front line responders” has been gaining currency. By addressing the extent and typology of mental health needs of survivor populations (e.g., adjustment disorders, depression, and stress reactions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms), the business of recovery and reconstruction can begin. This paper sufficiently captures the extent of psychiatric morbidity in the affected Kashmiri populations following the October 2005 earthquake in India.The authors visited >30 rural and remote sites and met with >300 survivors who had lost their homes, loved ones, and who also had suffered physical injury and mental health trauma. It is a remarkable testament to human resiliency that the vast majority of the earthquake survivors described in this paper, including those who live in an ongoing state of civil unrest due to political conflict, did not present full PTSD mental health disorders. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine deserves praise for supporting the work of our colleagues in the south. Thanks to the WADEM for the inclusion of this empirically based study, as it contributes to our understanding of human resiliency following disasters caused by natural hazards in a meaningful way.