Effects of Disaster Damage and Working Conditions on Mental Health Among Public Servants 16 Months After the Great East Japan Earthquake

Abstract

The effects of stressors in the aftermath of a disaster could remain for a long time. Few public servants experienced persistent mental distress. Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:622-630.

Factors and effects of natural disaster-related stress on local government employees who live in affected areas: A scoping review

“…Table 1 lists the manuscripts that were the included in this study. Of the 31 studies analyzed, 23 (Kato & Asukai, 2004;Azuma et al, 2010;Azuma, 2012;Inoue et al, 2012;Ushio, Osawa, & Shimizu, 2012;Kitamura, Shindo, Tachibana, Honma, & Someya, 2013;Konno, Hozawa, & Munakata, 2013;Furumoto, 2014;Kayama et al, 2014;Sakuragi & Tashiro, 2014;Suzuki, Fukasawa, Obara, & Kim, 2014;Takahashi et al, 2014;Wakashima et al, 2014;Sakuma et al, 2015;Maeda, Ueda, Nagai, Fujii, & Oe, 2016;Matsuo et al, 2016;Konno & Munakata, 2017;Okano & Takagishi, 2017;Sakurai et al, 2017;Suzuki, Fukasawa, Obara, & Kim, 2017;Fukasawa, Suzuki, Obara, & Kim, 2018;Hasegawa et al, 2018;Yajima, 2019) were conducted in Japan, five in the United States (McCanlies, Mnatsakanova, Andrew, Burchfiel, & Violanti, 2014;McCanlies, Gu, Andrew, Burchfiel, & Violanti, 2017;McCanlies, Gu, Andrew, & Violanti, 2018;Leppma et al, 2018;Fullerton, Mash, Wang, Morganstein, & Ursano, 2019), and three in China (Wang, Shi, Ng, Wang, & Chan, 2011;Fan et al, 2021aFan et al, , 2021b. The study design included 20 quantitative studies, four qualitative studies, five activity reports, one case report, and one study used both quantitative and qualitative analysis.…”

“…Qualitative study N Earthquake Employees were perplexed by the excessive sense of mission and their dual public and private roles. Wang et al, 2011;Azuma, 2012;Inoue et al, 2012;Ushio et al, 2012;Konno et al, 2013;Kayama et al, 2014;Sakurai et al, 2017;Suzuki et al, 2017;Fukasawa et al, 2018 Unable to rest due to disaster work G, N, and F Wang et al, 2011;Azuma, 2012;Inoue et al, 2012;Ushio et al, 2012;Yajima, 2019;Suzuki et al, 2014;Sakuma et al, 2015;Matsuo et al, 2016;Sakurai et al, 2017;Fukasawa et al, 2018 Negative attitudes and atmosphere toward rest G and N Azuma, 2012; Ushio et al, 2012;Yajima, 2019;Sakuragi & Tashiro, 2014;Matsuo et al, 2016;…”

“…Difficulties in ensuring adequate sleep and rest due to disaster response: During a disaster, the long working hours, inability to rest, and an atmosphere that does not allow time off is highlighted in this category. General government employees worked day and night at the beginning of the disaster and continued to work long Kitamura et al, 2013;Suzuki et al, 2014;Takahashi et al, 2014;Wakashima et al, 2014;Sakuma et al, 2015;Maeda et al, 2016;McCanlies et al, 2017;Fukasawa et al, 2018;Fan et al, 2021a Onset of post-traumatic stress disorder G and F Kato & Asukai, 2004;Sakuma et al, 2015;Maeda et al, 2016;Okano & Takagishi, 2017;Fullerton et al, 2019;Fan et al, 2021b Development of social problems Burnout G Suzuki et al, 2017;Fan et al, 2021b Suicide risk and behavior G and N Wang et al, 2011;Ushio et al, 2012;Inoue et al, 2012;Maeda et al, 2016;…”

“…Overtime postdisaster was 146.8 hours (Konno et al, 2013) -10-fold that of the previous year. Moreover, disaster response resulted in no time off (Wang et al, 2011;Azuma, 2012;Inoue et al, 2012;Ushio et al, 2012;Matsuo et al, 2016;Sakurai et al, 2017;Yajima, 2019), and lack of rest was a risk factor for depression and PTSD (Suzuki et al, 2014;Sakuma et al, 2015;Fukasawa et al, 2018). Additionally, local employees tended not to take time off (Ushio et al, 2012;Matsuo et al, 2016), and a workplace atmosphere was created that did not allow time off (Ushio et al, 2012).…”

“…Damage to self, family, and acquaintances: This category indicates the specific damage caused by the disaster to individuals and others. Employees whose homes were completely destroyed and/or who lived outside of their homes had a strong stress response (Wakashima et al, 2014), affecting their mental and physical symptoms (Sakurai et al, 2017;Fukasawa et al, 2018) and causing burnout (Suzuki et al, 2017). Relocation after a disaster was a risk factor for psychological distress (Sakuma et al, 2015;Fukasawa et al, 2018).…”