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The Nepal earthquake: use of a disaster to improve mental health literacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

D. R. Shakya
D. R. Shakya*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, BPK Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS), Dharan, Nepal, email [email protected]
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People were not well prepared for the psychological aftermath of the earthquake in Nepal in April 2015. A higher rate of mental disorder was noted in the ensuing months and there was a need to develop psychosocial interventions, especially for those with poor mental health literacy. Acceptable, affordable and accessible mental health awareness programmes were required. Through examples of strategies adopted by the author, this article asserts that the aftermath of natural disasters can give mental health professionals opportunities to improve mental health literacy.

Type
Thematic Paper
Information
BJPsych International , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , February 2016 , pp. 8 - 9
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 2016

References

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