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School-Based Disaster Recovery: Promotion of Children’s Mental Health Over the Long Haul

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2017

Elizabeth Peacock-Chambers Open the ORCID record for Elizabeth Peacock-Chambers [Opens in a new window] ,
Pilar del Canto ,
Douglas Ahlers ,
Mario Valdivia Peralta  and
Judith Palfrey
Elizabeth Peacock-Chambers
Affiliation:
Department of Pediatrics, University of Massachusetts Medical School Baystate Campus, Springfield, Massachusetts
Pilar del Canto
Affiliation:
Recupera Chile, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Douglas Ahlers
Affiliation:
Program on Crisis Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Mario Valdivia Peralta
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Universidad de Concepcion, Concepcion, Chile
Judith Palfrey*
Affiliation:
Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Judith Palfrey, Boston Children’s Hospital, 300 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115 (e-mail: Judith.Palfrey@childrens.harvard.edu).
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Abstract

The February 2010 earthquake and tsunamis destroyed 80% of the coastal town of Dichato, Chile, displacing over 400 families for nearly 4 years. The coalition Recupera Chile (RC) participated in the town’s integrated recovery process from January 2011 to the present with a focus on children’s mental health. The multidisciplinary RC coalition emphasized community-led post-disaster recovery, economic capacity rebuilding, and community health promotion (www.recuperachile.org). RC’s child health team fostered partnerships between the local elementary school, health clinic, Universidad de Concepcion, and Boston Children’s Hospital. The team responded to priorities identified by the town with a three-pronged approach of (1) case management, (2) resource development, and (3) monitoring and evaluation. This work resulted in the development of a model school-based program: La Escuela Basada en Realidad, which encompassed (1) health and mental health, (2) language and literacy, and (3) love of the sea. Post-disaster programs targeting mental health require a multi-year approach that extends beyond the completion of the physical reconstruction. Recovery is an organic process that cannot be prescripted and depends on solutions that emerge from the community. Finally, partnerships between schools and universities can foster resiliency and sustainability of programs for children and families. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:633–636)

Keywords

community mental health servicesearthquakesinternational cooperation
Type
Report from the Field
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 11 , Issue 5 , October 2017 , pp. 633 - 636
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2017 

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