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Natural disasters like flood and earthquake impose significant symptoms of emotional distress. When such disasters strike, health and other emergency departments have to deal with multiple problems. Homes are damaged and the survivors have to experience not only physical injuries but also their mental health is affected. Two most common and widely studied mental health distresses are depression and post-traumatic stress disorder also known as PTSD. A recent data suggested that the estimate of depression in natural disaster survivor is 5-50%. It is also proved that adolescents have higher depression rates than any other age groups. These findings are important to design effective depression screening tools resulting from a natural disaster ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"wOFwj1QL","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Harville, Jacobs, & Boynton-Jarrett, 2015)","plainCitation":"(Harville, Jacobs, & Boynton-Jarrett, 2015)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":418,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/4C6u8dIT/items/J2E3SY5G"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/4C6u8dIT/items/J2E3SY5G"],"itemData":{"id":418,"type":"article-journal","title":"When Is Exposure to a Natural Disaster Traumatic? Comparison of a Trauma Questionnaire and Disaster Exposure Inventory","container-title":"PLoS ONE","volume":"10","issue":"4","source":"PubMed Central","abstract":"Few studies have compared the sensitivity of trauma questionnaires to disaster inventories for assessing the prevalence of exposure to natural disaster or associated risk for post-disaster psychopathology. The objective of this analysis was to compare reporting of disaster exposure on a trauma questionnaire (Brief Trauma Questionnaire [BTQ]) to an inventory of disaster experience. Between 2011 and 2014, a sample of 841 reproductive-aged southern Louisiana women were interviewed using the BTQ and completed a detailed inventory about exposure to hurricanes and flooding. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomology was measured with the Post-Traumatic Stress Checklist, and depression with the Edinburgh Depression Scale. The single question addressing disaster exposure on the BTQ had a sensitivity of between 65% and 70% relative to the more detailed questions. Reporting disaster exposure on the BTQ was more likely for those who reported illness/injury due to a hurricane or flood (74%-77%) or danger (77-79%), compared to those who reported damage (69-71%) or evacuation (64-68%). Reporting disaster exposure on the BTQ was associated with depression (odds ratio [OR] 2.29, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.43-3.68). A single question is unlikely to be useful for assessing the degree of exposure to disaster across a broad population, and varies in utility depending on the mental health outcome of interest: the single trauma question is useful for assessing depression risk.","URL":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4390192/","DOI":"10.1371/journal.pone.0123632","ISSN":"1932-6203","note":"PMID: 25853820\nPMCID: PMC4390192","shortTitle":"When Is Exposure to a Natural Disaster Traumatic?","journalAbbreviation":"PLoS One","author":[{"family":"Harville","given":"Emily W."},{"family":"Jacobs","given":"Marni"},{"family":"Boynton-Jarrett","given":"Renée"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2015",4,8]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",1,8]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Harville, Jacobs, & Boynton-Jarrett, 2015). The experience during natural disasters like getting trapped can be more indicative of PTSD than depression. Property damage and loss of basic resources are also some of the aftermaths of natural disasters that leads to depression. The public health is now paying attention to both physical and mental conditions of such populations. Therefore, nurses are trained in such a way that they deal with utmost delicacy while treating such patients so that they can come back to normal life ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"ABFJ4TIs","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Korteweg, van Bokhoven, Yzermans, & Grievink, 2010)","plainCitation":"(Korteweg, van Bokhoven, Yzermans, & Grievink, 2010)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":415,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/4C6u8dIT/items/9S2TSY72"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/4C6u8dIT/items/9S2TSY72"],"itemData":{"id":415,"type":"article-journal","title":"Rapid Health and Needs assessments after disasters: a systematic review","container-title":"BMC Public Health","page":"295","volume":"10","source":"PubMed Central","abstract":"Background\nPublichealth care providers, stakeholders and policy makers request a rapid insight into health status and needs of the affected population after disasters. To our knowledge, there is no standardized rapid assessment tool for European countries. The aim of this article is to describe existing tools used internationally and analyze them for the development of a workable rapid assessment.\n\nMethods\nA review was conducted, including original studies concerning a rapid health and/or needs assessment. The studies used were published between 1980 and 2009. The electronic databasesof Medline, Embase, SciSearch and Psychinfo were used.\n\nResults\nThirty-three studies were included for this review. The majority of the studies was of US origin and in most cases related to natural disasters, especially concerning the weather. In eighteen studies an assessment was conducted using a structured questionnaire, eleven studies used registries and four used both methods. Questionnaires were primarily used to asses the health needs, while data records were used to assess the health status of disaster victims.\n\nConclusions\nMethods most commonly used were face to face interviews and data extracted from existing registries. Ideally, a rapid assessment tool is needed which does not add to the burden of disaster victims. In this perspective, the use of existing medical registries in combination with a brief questionnaire in the aftermath of disasters is the most promising. Since there is an increasing need for such a tool this approach needs further examination.","DOI":"10.1186/1471-2458-10-295","ISSN":"1471-2458","note":"PMID: 20515478\nPMCID: PMC2889870","shortTitle":"Rapid Health and Needs assessments after disasters","journalAbbreviation":"BMC Public Health","author":[{"family":"Korteweg","given":"Helena A"},{"family":"Bokhoven","given":"Irene","non-dropping-particle":"van"},{"family":"Yzermans","given":"CJ"},{"family":"Grievink","given":"Linda"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2010",6,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Korteweg, van Bokhoven, Yzermans, & Grievink, 2010).
Dealing with PTSD and depression in patients is a public health goal now, especially in a vulnerable population. Extensive research has suggested that both adults and adolescents suffer from depression and other health issues as a result of natural disaster. Trauma history and social support emerged as an important indicator of depression in adolescents. While property damage and losing social status was causative depression agent in adults.
PTSD is associated with facets of an actual disaster like being trapped in a building as a result of the flood. Depression is aftermath of disaster, like in case of relocation when one's social life gets disturbed then most adults feel useless and become depressed. While making policies for such individuals, the public health strategists suggest that nurses should be humble and they should keep in mind the history of the patients while treating them. Most nurses ask questions about their past and try to assess their past traumatic experiences. They also ask queries about the calamity's events and associated stressors to understand the degree of emotional stress. They focus on psychological factors such as social support that can be effective while assessing such populations ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"AVtl4Dse","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Cohen et al., 2016)","plainCitation":"(Cohen et al., 2016)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":412,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/4C6u8dIT/items/TYSJYTA2"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/4C6u8dIT/items/TYSJYTA2"],"itemData":{"id":412,"type":"article-journal","title":"How Should We Screen for Depression Following a Natural Disaster? An ROC Approach to Post-Disaster Screening in Adolescents and Adults","container-title":"Journal of affective disorders","page":"102-109","volume":"202","source":"PubMed Central","abstract":"Background\nThe present study’s aim was to provide the foundation for an efficient, empirically based protocol for depression screening following a natural disaster. Utilizing a Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analytic approach, the study tested a) what specific disaster-related stressors (i.e., property damage, loss of basic services) and individual-related constructs (i.e., PTSD symptoms, trauma history, social support) conveyed the greatest risk for post-natural disaster depression, b) specific cutoff scores across these measures, and c) whether the significance or cutoff scores for each construct varied between adolescents and adults.\n\nMethods\nStructured phone-based clinical interviews were conducted with 2,000 adolescents who lived through a tornado and 1,543 adults who survived a hurricane.\n\nResults\nFindings suggested that in both adolescents and adults, individual-related constructs forecasted greater risk for depressive symptoms following a natural disaster compared to disaster-related stressors. Furthermore, trauma history and PTSD symptoms were particularly strong indicators for adolescent depressive symptoms compared to adult depressive symptoms. Adolescents and adults who reported vulnerable scores for social support, trauma history, and lifetime PTSD symptoms were approximately twice as likely to present as depressed following the natural disaster.\n\nLimitations\nFindings from the present study were limited to post-disaster assessments and based on self-reported functioning 6–12 months following the natural disaster.\n\nConclusions\nThe present study synthesizes the extensive body of research on post-disaster functioning by providing a clear framework for which questions may be most important to ask when screening for depression following a natural disaster.","DOI":"10.1016/j.jad.2016.05.034","ISSN":"0165-0327","note":"PMID: 27259082\nPMCID: PMC4947444","shortTitle":"How Should We Screen for Depression Following a Natural Disaster?","journalAbbreviation":"J Affect Disord","author":[{"family":"Cohen","given":"Joseph R."},{"family":"Adams","given":"Zachary W."},{"family":"Menon","given":"Suvarna V."},{"family":"Youngstrom","given":"Eric A."},{"family":"Bunnell","given":"Brian E."},{"family":"Acierno","given":"Ron"},{"family":"Ruggiero","given":"Kenneth J."},{"family":"Danielson","given":"Carla Kmett"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016",9,15]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Cohen et al., 2016).
As community health nursing (CHN) relies heavily on the organized process of designing and providing health facilities to improve the health of masses. Therefore, the suggestions and findings in this article can be of great help. Because the amount of stress one pass through as a result of a natural disaster is huge. When the victims are relocated they also struggle with other traumas so it is better that the nurses ask them deep questions related to previous traumatic encounters, by doing this, they can assess the amount of stress they are going through and they can treat such patients more effectively.
References
ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Cohen, J. R., Adams, Z. W., Menon, S. V., Youngstrom, E. A., Bunnell, B. E., Acierno, R., … Danielson, C. K. (2016). How Should We Screen for Depression Following a Natural Disaster? An ROC Approach to Post-Disaster Screening in Adolescents and Adults. Journal of Affective Disorders, 202, 102–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2016.05.034
Harville, E. W., Jacobs, M., & Boynton-Jarrett, R. (2015). When Is Exposure to a Natural Disaster Traumatic? Comparison of a Trauma Questionnaire and Disaster Exposure Inventory. PLoS ONE, 10(4). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0123632
Korteweg, H. A., van Bokhoven, I., Yzermans, C., & Grievink, L. (2010). Rapid Health and Needs assessments after disasters: a systematic review. BMC Public Health, 10, 295. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-10-295
