Forum Response: Disasters, Mental Health, and Special Needs Populations
I agree with forum 1 that natural disasters do not only cause physical damage but also cause emotional damage. Emotional damage causes fear to the affected people as they end up living in fear that something similar may occur; some even end up committing suicide due to the trauma they underwent through. According to Babbel (2010), people who have experienced a disaster in their life will show post trauma stress disorder or some kind of emotional damage. This is true because people who have experienced disaster are affected and always live in fear, anxiety, and some time they lose control over themselves due to what they went through. Watching your loved ones perish helplessly is not easy and this traumatizes the victims. I agree with forum 1 that mental health consultants should be involved to offer therapy to the victims as a way of helping them overcome the trauma. Although the writer of the forum 1 urges that individuals should purchase insurance for mental health services I tend to disagree with this because if people have to get mental health services through insurance this means the poor who cannot afford it will be left out in case of a disaster emergency. Therapy should be offered to all victims without any kind of discrimination.
Forum 2 urges that first responders are physically and mentally affected by disasters and I agree with this because first responders come into conduct with the incident and some things are so scary to witness. For example, seeing dead bodies of people lying helplessly is enough to affect someone mentally because human beings have emotions. I tend to disagree with Forum 2 writer about parents being of help to children recovery. According to my view, both parents and children need therapy. Parents who have undergone the same trauma as the children are of less help to them because trauma will tear down the parents making it difficult to help them. If parents have to be used to help children heal from the occurrences then the parents should be offered therapy services first. Mondal et al (2013), urges that affected children will show behavior such as anxiety, nervousness, restlessness, insomnia, and nightmares. Lastly, I agree with form 2 that psychiatrists and psychologists must be included as part of a disaster response plan. Therapists will be of much help to the victims, both adults and children as they will help them heal mentally hence live normal lives thereafter.
References
Babbel, S. (2010). The Trauma That Arises from Natural Disasters. Accessed May 22, 2019.
Mondal, R. et al. (2013). Acute Stress-Related Psychological Impact in Children Following Devastating Natural Disaster, the Sikkim Earthquake (2011), India.