Citation

Généreux M, Schluter PJ, Takahashi S, Usami S, Mashino S, Kayano R, Kim Y. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019; 16(8): e16081309.

Affiliation

National Institute of Mental Health, National Center for Neurology and Psychiatry, Kodaira 187-0031, Japan. kim@ncnp.go.jp.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph16081309

PMID

31013679

Abstract

Emergencies and disasters typically affect entire communities, cause substantial losses and disruption, and result in a significant and persistent mental health burden. There is currently a paucity of evidence on safe and effective individual- and community-level strategies for improving mental health before, during, and after such events. In October 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) Centre for Health Development (WHO Kobe Centre) convened a meeting bringing together leading Asia Pacific and international disaster research experts. The expert meeting identified key research needs in five major areas, one being "Psychosocial management before, during, and after emergencies and disasters". Experts for this research area identified critical gaps in observational research (i.e., the monitoring of long-term psychological consequences) and interventional research (i.e., the development and evaluation of individual- and community-level interventions). Three key research issues were identified. First, experts underscored the need for a standardized and psychometrically robust instrument that classified the mental health/psychosocial risk of people within both a clinical and community setting. Then, the need for a standardization of methods for prevention, screening, diagnosis, and treatment for affected people was highlighted. Finally, experts called for a better identification of before, during, and after emergency or disaster assets associated with greater community resilience.

Language: en

Keywords

Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction; WHO Thematic Platform for Health-EDRM Research Network; community resilience; health emergency and disaster risk management (Health-EDRM); mental health impacts; post-traumatic stress disorder; psychosocial management