Citation

Yamashita J, Shigemura J. Psychiatr. Clin. North Am. 2013; 36(3): 351-370.

Affiliation

Faculty of Letters, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan. Electronic address: yamajun37@gmail.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.psc.2013.05.004

PMID

23954052

Abstract

The Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 caused 2 other serious disasters: a tsunami and a nuclear power plant accident. A chronic shortage of mental health resources had been previously reported in the Tohoku region, and the triple disaster worsened the situation. Eventually a public health approach was implemented by providing a common room in temporary housing developments to build a sense of community and to approach evacuees so that they could be triaged and referred to mental health teams. Japan now advocates using psychological first aid to educate first responders. This article extracts key lessons from relevant literature.

Language: en