Reducing the Future Risk of Trauma: On the Integration of Global Disaster Policy within Specific Health Domains and Established Fields of Practice

Disaster Mental Health Risk Reduction: Appraising Disaster Mental Health Research as If Risk Mattered

The globally increasing frequency, intensity, and complexity of extreme climatic events and disasters poses significant challenges for the future health and wellbeing of affected populations around the world [...].

Emotional processing of sadness and disgust evoked by disaster scenes

OBJECTIVE

Disaster scenes produce long-term negative feelings in those who experience them. Previous studies have focused on mitigating disaster impacts through directed forgetting or conscious suppression. However, the initial emotional processing of disaster scenes is not fully understood, hindering the comprehension of long-term disaster impacts. This study aims to investigate how pictures of disaster scenes evoking disgust and sadness are processed via cortical electrical activity.

METHODS

Pictures of grief and mutilation from disasters were used to evoke sadness and disgust, respectively. Event-related desynchronization (ERD) and event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to quantify the intensity and time-course of emotional processing.

RESULTS

The information processing of emotional pictures was stronger than neutral pictures, represented by greater declines of alpha ERD. In the posterior ERP components of N1 and EPN, amplitudes for emotional pictures were larger than those for neutral pictures, which reflected the effects of arousal on visual perception. In the anterior ERP components of P2, P3, and LPP, disgust pictures showed higher attention attraction and enhanced encoding memory processing.

CONCLUSIONS

Disgust disaster scenarios induced long-term prominent LPP, which may correspond with the long-term negative impacts of the disaster.

The Mediating Role of Disaster Policy Implementation in Disaster Risk Reduction and Sustainable Development in Sierra Leone

This research reports the role of disaster policy implementation achieving disaster risk reduction (DRR) and sustainable development (SD) in Sierra Leone. The factors were highlighted to help policymakers measure disaster risk perception (DRP), disaster adaptation (DA), community participation (CP), and disaster policy implementation (DPI) towards achieving disaster risk reduction and sustainable development. A questionnaire was administered to collect data from the respondents in six disaster-prone communities (Dwarzarck, Portee-Rokupa, Kroobay, Susan’s Bay, Moyiba, and Colbot) in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Employing the structural equation model approach, we found that all the disaster risk reduction factors (DRP, CP, DA, and DPI) directly influence SD. Furthermore, disaster policy implementation serves as a channel through which disaster risk reduction influences sustainable development. This study suggests to policymakers to use the factors mentioned earlier to design effective disaster policy implementation to achieve disaster risk reduction and sustainable development in Sierra Leone.

The Integration of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support and Disaster Risk Reduction: A mapping and Review

The field of disaster and emergency management has shifted in focus towards the goal of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). However, the degree to which the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) field has followed this trend is relatively unknown. Therefore, the objectives of this review were to identify relevant projects, materials, and publications relating to MHPSS and DRR integration and define current domains of action in this integration. A review was conducted using a two-pronged approach for data collection. This approach included 1) a mapping exercise eliciting relevant documentation and project descriptions from MHPSS actors, and 2) a database and internet literature search. The mapping exercise was conducted between January and November 2019, while the literature search was completed in March 2019. The majority of identified materials concerned actions of capacity and systems building; preparedness; policy development, consensus building, and awareness raising; school- and child-focused DRR; inclusive DRR; and resilience promotion. Results also suggested that relatively little consensus exists in terms of formal definitions of and frameworks or guidance for integrating MHPSS and DRR. Moreover, domains of action varied in terms of current implementation practices and empirical evidence. Materials and projects are reviewed and discussed in terms of implications for advancing the integration of DRR and MHPSS and expanding MHPSS approaches to include building better before emergencies.

Towards resilient health systems: opportunities to align surgical and disaster planning

Natural disasters significantly contribute to human death and suffering. Moreover, they exacerbate pre-existing health inequalities by imposing an additional burden on the most vulnerable populations. Robust local health systems can greatly mitigate this burden by absorbing the extraordinary patient volume and case complexity immediately after a disaster. This resilience is largely determined by the predisaster local surgical capacity, with trauma, neurosurgical, obstetrical and anaesthesia care of particular importance. Nevertheless, the disaster management and global surgery communities have not coordinated the development of surgical systems in low/middle-income countries (LMIC) with disaster resilience in mind. Herein, we argue that an appropriate peridisaster response requires coordinated surgical and disaster policy, as only local surgical systems can provide adequate disaster care in LMICs.

We highlight three opportunities to help guide this policy collaboration. First, the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction set forth independent roadmaps for global surgical care and disaster risk reduction; however, ultimately both advocate for health system strengthening in LMICs. Second, the integration of surgical and disaster planning is necessary. Disaster risk reduction plans could recognise the role of surgical systems in disaster preparedness more explicitly and pre-emptively identify deficiencies in surgical systems. Based on these insights, National Surgical, Obstetric, and Anesthesia Plans, in turn, can better address deficiencies in systems and ensure increased disaster resilience. Lastly, the recent momentum for national surgical planning in LMICs represents a political window for the integration of surgical policy and disaster risk reduction strategies.