Disaster health最新文献

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1080/21665044.2014.1103123.].

In contrast to continental nations, the world's 52 small island developing states (SIDS) are recognized as a collective of countries that experience disproportionate challenges for sustainable development related to their geography, small size, and physical isolation. These same states also face elevated risks for disaster incidence and consequences particularly in the realms of climate change, sea level rise, natural disasters (tropical cyclones, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes), and marine hazardous materials spills. Cyclone Winston's direct impact on Fiji in 2016 and Cyclone Pam's landfall over Vanuatu in 2015 provide case examples illustrating the special vulnerabilities of the SIDS.

Psychological First Aid (PFA) is the recommended immediate psychosocial response during crises. As PFA is now widely implemented in crises worldwide, there are increasing calls to evaluate its effectiveness. World Vision used PFA as a fundamental component of their emergency response following the 2014 conflict in Gaza. Anecdotal reports from Gaza suggest a range of benefits for those who received PFA. Though not intending to undertake rigorous research, World Vision explored learnings about PFA in Gaza through Focus Group Discussions with PFA providers, Gazan women, men and children and a Key Informant Interview with a PFA trainer. The qualitative analyses aimed to determine if PFA helped individuals to feel safe, calm, connected to social supports, hopeful and efficacious - factors suggested by the disaster literature to promote coping and recovery (Hobfoll et al., 2007). Results show positive psychosocial benefits for children, women and men receiving PFA, confirming that PFA contributed to: safety, reduced distress, ability to engage in calming practices and to support each other, and a greater sense of control and hopefulness irrespective of their adverse circumstances. The data shows that PFA formed an important part of a continuum of care to meet psychosocial needs in Gaza and served as a gateway for addressing additional psychosocial support needs. A "whole-of-family" approach to PFA showed particularly strong impacts and strengthened relationships. Of note, the findings from World Vision's implementation of PFA in Gaza suggests that future PFA research go beyond a narrow focus on clinical outcomes, to a wider examination of psychosocial, familial and community-based outcomes.

The year 2015 is notable for the coincidence of several strong climate indicators that having bearing on the occurrence and intensity of tropical cyclones worldwide. This year, 2015, is clearly on track to become the warmest on record in terms of global temperatures. During the latter half of 2015, a very strong El Niño has formed and is predicted to build impressively, perhaps rivaling the memorable El Niño of 1997/1998. Warm Pacific Ocean temperatures, coupled with a strengthening El Niño, have supported the proliferation of Western North Pacific basin typhoons and Eastern/Central North Pacific Hurricanes. Most notable among these, Hurricane Patricia formed on October 20, 2015 and experienced extremely rapid intensification to become the strongest hurricane in the history of the Western Hemisphere and then weakened just as abruptly before dissipating on October 24, 2015. Rather than an aberration, these climate patterns of 2015 represent an ongoing trend with implications for the disaster health of coastal populations worldwide.

On July 6^th 2013, a train derailment occurred in the small town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, Canada, causing a major human and environmental disaster. In this case study, we comprehensively describe and analyze actions taken by the Public Health Department of the Eastern Townships, in close collaboration with community-based organizations, during both the impact phase emergency response and the post-impact recovery operations that continued for months. Due to the complexity of the event, public health actions needed to be broadly diversified. Preventive measures targeted chemical, physical, biological, and psychosocial hazards in the short-, medium- and long-term. Our analyses yielded valuable lessons that will improve and inform our response to future events while serving as a basis for developing a conceptual framework for public health emergency preparedness.

Skills for Psychological Recovery (SPR) is a brief skills-based approach to assist community members to better cope after a disaster or other tragedy. This paper reports on an evaluation of a large SPR training and support program following floods and cyclones in Queensland, Australia. The program sought to recruit, train and support competent SPR trainers; provide systematic high-quality training in SPR skills for practitioners; improve the confidence of a large number of practitioners to use SPR; and encourage practitioners' use of SPR with community members. Trainers recruited to the program facilitated 49 training sessions for 788 practitioners across Queensland. Trainers were assessed by practitioners to have high-level competencies to run training sessions. Practitioners reported improved confidence to use each SPR intervention following training and at 6 months post-training. Based on available data, more than 6 out of 10 practitioners used an SPR intervention during the follow up period, with each intervention used by over half of the practitioners at both 3 and 6 months. The most frequently reported barrier to using SPR was not having seen a community member with problems requiring SPR. For trainers, a psychology background and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) orientation were unrelated to their competencies to facilitate practitioner training sessions. For practitioners, a psychology background and to some extent a CBT orientation were related to confidence to use SPR interventions. In summary, this study provides details of an evaluation of a large-scale mental health training and support program to enhance response to meet the mental health needs of those affected by disaster.

Behavioral problems and psychopathologies were reported in children exposed to the World Trade Center (WTC) attacks in New York City within 2-3 y post-disaster. Little is known of subsequent 9/11 related behavioral and emotional problems. We assessed risk factors for behavioral difficulties and probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 489 adolescent enrollees ages 11-18 y of age in the World Trade Center Health Registry cohort using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and DISC Predictive Scales (DPS), respectively, as reported by the adolescents. Associations between parental PTSD and adolescent PTSD and behavioral problems were studied in a subset of 166 adolescent-parent pairs in which the parent was also a Registry enrollee. Nearly one-fifth (17.4%) of the adolescents, all of whom were 5-12 y old at the time of the attacks, scored in the abnormal (5.7%) or borderline (11.7%) range of total SDQ. Problems were more frequent in minority, low-income, and single-parent adolescents. Abnormal and borderline SDQ scores were significantly associated with direct WTC exposures and with WTC-related injury or death of a family member. Adolescent PTSD was significantly associated with WTC exposure and with fear of one's own injury or death, and with PTSD in the parent (OR = 5.6; 95% CI 1.1-28.4). This adolescent population should be monitored for persistence or worsening of these problems. Co-occurrence of parent and child mental health symptoms following a disaster may have implications for healthcare practitioners and for disaster response planners.