Lessons learned and forgotten: The need for prevention and mental health interventions in disaster preparedness

Abstract

Human beings have been subjected to the effects of both natural and man‐made disasters for centuries. How humans have coped with catastrophes has been recorded through history. This review proceeds from an examination of the efforts in legislation and disaster research through a brief history of wartime experiences and treatment of combat stress reactions. As warfare changed, so did the ability of soldiers to cope. Likewise, treatment interventions to restore soldiers to effectiveness evolved with the changes in warfare. The treatment principles developed in war and the concepts recognized from the stress literature can be integrated to understand how the treatment interventions work. Examples of the delivery of mental health services are reviewed. The lessons learned during war were often forgotten after the war. It was not until the 1970s that the need for prevention and planning for mental health interventions during and after disasters was legislated. Research efforts are now focusing on planning, implementing interventions, and following survivors/victims for posttraumatic effects.

Disaster mental health preparedness in the community: A systematic review study

“…McCabe et al (2014) 9 1 Reviews Barron (2004), Fox et al (2012), Mangelsdorff (1985), McCabe et al 2014, and Schonfeld and Gurwitch (2009) 28 4 Barron (2004), Fox et al (2012), Malkina-Pykh and Pykh (2013), Mangelsdorff (1985), McCabe et al 2014, Perry and Lindell (1978), Schonfeld and Gurwitch (2009), Sharma et al (2015), Udomratn (2008), and Zulch et al 201286 12 Table 3. Research sources.…”

“…Developed countries Barron (2004), Fox et al (2012), Malkina-Pykh and Pykh (2013), Mangelsdorff (1985), McCabe et al 2014, Morrissey and Reser (2003), Perry and Lindell (1978), Schonfeld and Gurwitch (2009), and Zulch et al (2012) 64 9 Table 4. Included studies for final analysis.…”

Cross-Cultural Assessment of Psychological Trauma and PTSD

“…Though descriptions of what is now understood as posttraumatic stress have appeared throughout recorded history, the development of the field of traumatic stress, or traumatology, has been episodic, marked by interest and denial, and plagued with errors in diagnostic and treatment practices Mangelsdorf, 1985;Solomon, 1995). Indeed, one of the most prevalent and consistent themes during the twentieth century has been the denial of psychic trauma and its consequences (Lifton, 1979), particularly in the myriad deadly conflicts that find their multigenerational origins in history, the nonresolution of which ensures their perpetuation.…”

Traumatic stress as an area for research

“…The first systematic and empirical field studies of traumatic stress were conducted by sociologists in the 1950s and early 1960s. Working originally through university research groups, and later at the request of military services (Mangelsdorff, 1985) the early researchers were formed into the Committee on Disaster Studies of the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council. Their work fostered a number of research reports of individual disasters (for example, Clifford, 1956;Fritz, 1957;Fritz and Marks, 1954;Killian, 1956;Moore and Friedsam 1959;Perry and Perry, 1959;Perry et al, 1956;Wallace, 1956) and culminated in a collected work edited by Baker and Chapman (1962).…”