Factors Related to the Mental Health and Suicidal thoughts of Adults Living in Shelters for a Protracted Period Following a Large-Scale Disaster

Abstract

After the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, residents of the area affected by the Fukushima nuclear accident were forced to seek long-term shelter. International attention to mental health needs has increased along with reconstruction of life throughout the region. Mental health, suicidal thoughts and related factors in the 18 months after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster were examined in a community-based, cross-sectional study of 1,595 adults living in Fukushima. To determine mental status, we used the Japanese version of K6, which was developed to screen mood and anxiety disorders. Using a cut-off of 13 points, the frequency of poor mental health was 12.1% among all subjects. Thus, the frequencies of mental health problems and suicidal thoughts were high among residents forced to live in long-term shelters following a disaster. To improve the mental well-being of community-dwelling adults living for extended periods in shelters following a disaster, there is a need to focus on issues of unemployment, stress on the health of shelter dwellers and their families, stress on human relationships, social support, social capital, and suicidal thoughts.

Suicidal ideation during COVID-19: The contribution of unique and cumulative stressors

“…First, stressors that affect material and economic variables, such as increases in housing, financial, and food insecurity, as well as losses to employment and income, are established risks for increased suicidality ( Clay et al., 2018 ; Lowe et al., 2016 ; Morganstein and Ursano, 2020 ; Rukundo et al., 2019 ; Sherbuk et al., 2020 ). Economic insecurities and losses have been shown to contribute to feelings of hopelessness and despair, which are in turn associated with SI ( Amagai et al., 2014 ; Haw et al., 2015 ; Mendonca and Holden, 1996 ; Miret et al., 2014 ; Steeg et al., 2016 ). Second, social stressors such as increased isolation, grief, and interpersonal fighting, contribute to increased SI ( Carvalho Aguiar Melo and de Sousa Soares, 2020 ; Ekanayake et al., 2013 ; Molyneaux et al., 2020 ).…”

Factors Affecting the Sense of Coherence (SOC) for Long-term Evacuees after a Large-Scale Disaster in Japan

“…These results suggest that activating effective stress reduction methods can enhance stress coping skills and promote physical and mental recovery. It has been reported that it is desirable to provide support for long-term evacuees to build connections in the community, along with livelihood recovery support such as improvement of living environment and economic support [17]. It was suggested that increasing opportunities for interaction and activities among that lead to mental relaxation of the survivors, and introducing stress reduction methods that they can easily adopt, would be effective.…”

“…Various factors related to the suicide were found and they are from stressful life events in the past six months, lack of social networks and economic factors, health conditions and awareness of local residents, and the influence of mass media [4], [5]. Moreover, mental ill-health condition due to severe stress situations has also been reported as a factor related to suicide among survivors [6]. It is clear that residents affected by the nuclear power plant accident, and had multiple problems, are at high risk of developing secondary mental health problems.…”

“…As a personal quality of stress coping, Antonovsky proposed the Sense of Coherence (SOC) [6], which is a concept of stress coping ability or health maintenance ability. The concept of SOC is based on the three subconcepts of comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness, and is based on the idea that individuals mobilize their own " General Resistances Resources: GRRs" to manage stress and overcome the pathogenic effects of daily environmental influences and unreasonable demands.…”