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Controversy and Consensus in Disaster Mental Health Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2012

Kathleen J. Tierney
Kathleen J. Tierney*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Criminal, Justice and Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware, Newark, New Jersey, USA
*
*Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716USA, E-mail: tierney@udel.edu
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Abstract

Controversies regarding the mental health consequences of disasters are rooted both in disciplinary orientations and in the widely varied research strategies that have been employed in disaster mental health studies. However, despite a history of dissensus, there are also key issues on which researchers agree. Disasters constitute stressful and traumatic experiences. However, vulnerability to such experiences, as well as to more chronic Stressors, is socially structured, reflecting the influence of socio-economic status and other axes of stratification, including gender, race, and ethnicity. Disaster events differ in the extent to which they generate stress for victims. A holistic perspective on disaster mental health would take into account not only disaster event characteristics, but also social-systemic sources of both acute and chronic stress, secondary and cumulative Stressors, and victims internal and external coping capacities.

Resumen

Las controversias acerca de las consecuenciasen la salud mentalpor el impacto de los desastres, encuentran su origen en la orientación disciplinaria y en una ampliavariedad de estrategias empleadas en los estudios de salud mental en desastres. Sin embargo, a pesar de la historia de desacuerdos, hay varias cuestiones de importancia en las que los investigadores coinciden. Los desastres constituyen experiencias traumáticas. Sin embargo, la vulnerabilidad a dichas experiencias, así como a estresores más crónicos, se encuentran socialmente estructurados, reflejando la influencia del estatus socioeconómico y de otros ejes de estratificación, incluyendo sexo, edad, raza y cultura. Los desastres difieren en la extensión del estrés que provocan en las víctimas. Una perspectiva holtística de la salud mental en los desastres, debe considerar no solo las características del evento, sino también el origen sistémico-social del estrés agudo y crónico, así como los estresores secundarios y acumulativos, además de las capacidades de manejo internas y externas de las víctimas.

Keywords

disasterdisaster-related stressdisaster-related traumamental healthmental health consequencesmental health researchPost-Traumatic Stress Disorderpsycho-social impacts
Type
Public Health and Disasters
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 15 , Issue 4: The Role of Public Health in Disaster Medicine , December 2000 , pp. 55 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2000

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