Psychosocial Management Before, During, and After Emergencies and Disasters—Results from the Kobe Expert Meeting
1
Sherbrooke Hospital University Centre, Eastern Townships Integrated University Centre in Health and Social Services, Sherbrooke, QC J1J 3H5, Canada
2
Department of Community Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC J1G 1B1, Canada
3
School of Health Sciences, University of Canterbury—Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand
4
Primary Care Clinical Unit, School of Clinical Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD 4006, Australia
5
Department of Disaster Psychiatry, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba 305-8575, Japan
6
Ibaraki Prefectural Medical Center of Psychiatry, Kasama 309-1717, Japan
7
Department of Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing, Faculty of Life Sciences, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto 860-8555, Japan
8
Research Institute of Nursing Care for People and Community, University of Hyōgo, Akashi 673-8588, Japan
9
World Health Organization Centre for Health Development, Kobe 651-0073, Japan
10
National Institute of Mental Health, National Center for Neurology and Psychiatry, Kodaira 187-0031, Japan
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(8), 1309; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16081309
Received: 31 January 2019 / Revised: 24 March 2019 / Accepted: 1 April 2019 / Published: 12 April 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health-Related Emergency Disaster Risk Management (Health-EDRM))
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.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
health emergency and disaster risk management (Health-EDRM); Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction; WHO Thematic Platform for Health-EDRM Research Network; post-traumatic stress disorder; mental health impacts; psychosocial management; community resilience
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Généreux, M.; Schluter, P.J.; Takahashi, S.; Usami, S.; Mashino, S.; Kayano, R.; Kim, Y. Psychosocial Management Before, During, and After Emergencies and Disasters—Results from the Kobe Expert Meeting. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 1309. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16081309
AMA Style
Généreux M, Schluter PJ, Takahashi S, Usami S, Mashino S, Kayano R, Kim Y. Psychosocial Management Before, During, and After Emergencies and Disasters—Results from the Kobe Expert Meeting. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2019; 16(8):1309. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16081309
Chicago/Turabian StyleGénéreux, Mélissa; Schluter, Philip J.; Takahashi, Sho; Usami, Shiori; Mashino, Sonoe; Kayano, Ryoma; Kim, Yoshiharu. 2019. "Psychosocial Management Before, During, and After Emergencies and Disasters—Results from the Kobe Expert Meeting" Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 16, no. 8: 1309. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16081309
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
Search more from Scilit
