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Chapter 11 - Mental Health in the Context of Multiple Exposures to Disasters

from Section 1 - The Nature and Impacts of Twenty-First-Century Healthcare Emergencies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2024

By
Claire Leppold  and
Lennart Reifels
Edited by
Richard Williams ,
Verity Kemp ,
Keith Porter ,
Tim Healing  and
John Drury
Richard Williams
Affiliation:
University of South Wales
Verity Kemp
Affiliation:
Independent Health Emergency Planning Consultant
Keith Porter
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
Tim Healing
Affiliation:
Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London
John Drury
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
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Summary

Most disaster research, resources, and interventions for mental health have been based on the premise of a single incident or disaster occurring. This chapter presents the results of a scoping review on mental health in the aftermath of multiple disaster exposures. It draws on existing evidence from cases in which communities have experienced disasters in rapid succession or years apart. It focuses on groups of findings on cumulative effects, re-activation of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and links between mental and physical health. This chapter makes the case that multiple disaster exposures have different implications to exposure to a single disaster, and should be treated as a priority emerging public health issue, given the projected increases in the frequency and severity of disasters due to climate change.

Keywords

cascading disastercompound disasterconsecutive disastercumulative effectsinteractive effectsmental health
Type
Chapter
Information
Major Incidents, Pandemics and Mental Health
The Psychosocial Aspects of Health Emergencies, Incidents, Disasters and Disease Outbreaks
 , pp. 58 - 62
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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