Citation

Fukuchi N, Shigemura J, Obara A. Disaster Med. Public Health Prep. 2023; 17: e517.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Publisher Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/dmp.2023.169

PMID

37872708

Abstract

Suicide substantially impacts disaster-affected communities due to pre-existing psychosocial effects caused by the disaster. Following the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, local disaster aid workers had overworked for months, and many workers eventually died by suicide. Although many workplaces suffered this dual damage, there is limited literature on psychosocial postvention in this context. This study reports the activities of individual/group postventions provided to these aid workers. The bereaved person expressed grief for the loss of their colleagues and anger for not being protected. The postvention observed unusual and distinctive group dynamics. It was essential for mental health professionals to address 2 types of traumatic exposures in the group programs -trauma from the disaster and their colleagues' deaths due to suicide. These postvention programs might be beneficial in maintaining aid workers' mental health and helping them cope with the loss of their colleagues.

Language: en

Keywords

occupational health; community mental health services; earthquakes; emergency psychiatric services; posttraumatic stress disorders