According to McMahon (2011), a disaster refers to a tragedy of a human-made or natural hazards which affects the environment or society negatively. In this context, a hazard is a condition that poses a threat level to health, environment, life, or property. As such, some natural disasters are predictable, for instance, hurricanes thus provide enough preparedness time while others are not predictable such as tsunamis and earthquakes. However, experts of disaster have discerned phases cycle which individuals and community in the disaster go through from the disaster impact time to establishment of a newly reconstructed life (McMahon, 2011).
The first phase is the pre-disaster phase: In this phase, the warning amount that the communities get before disasters occur varies depending on the disaster, and as a result, the perceived threat also differs (McMahon, 2011). For instance, earthquakes naturally hit without warning, whereas, foods and hurricanes typically come within warning hours to days. As such, when no warning occurs, survivors may feel more fearful, exposed, and unsafe of future calamities that are unpredicted. The survivors’ view of lacking the control over protecting their loved ones and themselves can be distressing. When people do not regard warning and as a result suffer loses, they may experience self-blame and guilt, and even they may have plans of protection in the future, they can forever live the sense of responsibility or guilt for what has happened (McMahon, 2011).
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The second phase is the heroic phase: This phase occurs at the impact time of disaster and its instant consequences. This phase is characterized by a community that is shell-shocked and in emergency needs for water, food and shelter (McMahon, 2011). Emotions range from strong loss and grief, and also altruism where there is a heroic sense among both emergency responders and survivors trying to search and rescue people, provide direct assistance, resources start to come, and emergency responders generally giving their best to meet the emergency needs. The main goal of these heroic actions is to save lives and minimize the damage of property by the disaster (McMahon, 2011).
The third phase, which is the honeymoon phase happens a few days after the disaster to close to three or six months onwards. In this phase, the survivors together with their loved ones feel the survival relief and short-lived optimism sense. The massive relief efforts enhance the survivors’ morale and people appreciate these relief efforts. Besides, at this stage, volunteer recruitment and fundraising can be the easiest since people will be willing and ready to assist survivors. This phase is characterized by survivors who are hopeful that there will be a quick recovery and life will go back to normal (McMahon, 2011).
In the fourth stage, the disillusionment phase occurs over time after the disaster and survivors begin to go through a process of inventory where they realize the limits of disaster assistance that are available due to unfulfilled promises (McMahon, 2011). The earlier unrealistic optimism fades, as the recognition of what happens starts to settle in, and resentment, frustration, disappointment, and anger manifest. This result in the phase of disillusionment where survivors are coming to terms with their situation’s reality. It may last from many months to several years, and survivors may question aid and governmental agencies’ service delivery, promises, achievements, and intentions. Particular events may act as triggers such as the disaster anniversary, which can prompt re-experiencing of adverse emotions linked to the disaster by the survivors (McMahon, 2011).
In the fifth stage, the reconstruction phase is a long-lasting disaster recovery phase which may take several years. Gradually, the emergency responders withdraw and people begin to assimilate the shock of the disaster and start to reconcile themselves to confront the new situation. Here, survivors go through setbacks and deal with their pain, eventually readapting to their new situations and environment. Individuals realize that they have to take self-responsibility, and as such, gradually, acceptance replaces anger and grief. The survivors have solved issues and rebuild their lives that are shattered, and this may be a long process as new functioning that is normal is gradually reestablished (McMahon, 2011).
Individual and Community Responses to A Disaster Event
Communities respond differently to disasters depending on the type of the disaster. For instance, the 2012 earthquakes in Northern Italian which struck the Emilia Romagna of Italian region and affected 14,350 people (Reifels, Pietrantoni, Prati, Kim, Kilpatrick, Dyb, & O'donnell, 2013). These two earthquakes resulted in the widespread evacuation of the members of the community that were affected, caused 26 deaths, and 33,600 buildings were damaged. The summary of the disaster psychological response included; the heroic phase where there was the development of self-help materials such as websites and leaflets, the performance of need assessment, and the practical assistance provision by the local health specialists. Additionally, it included NGOs such as Save the Children and Red Cross, and private organizations to the thirteen thousand affected people residing in the emergency shelters and temporary camps.
Additionally, Modena local health authority gave counseling sessions to targeted groups to the affected area healthcare workers which were aimed at alleviating acute distress. Besides, individual psychotherapy was offered weeks after the earthquake to symptomatic individuals as a way of early intervention (Reifels, Pietrantoni, Prati, Kim, Kilpatrick, Dyb, & O'donnell, 2013). This phase is appropriate for the observed behaviors. According to McMahon (2011), the heroic phase is characterized by survivors experiencing heroic actions tailored towards ensuring support to the victims through the provision of emergency needs from emergency responders like Red Cross.
Another phase that was experienced is the honeymoon phase where community response entailed 2,000 volunteer mobilization, fundraising events organization, and campaigns to embrace schools together with other initiatives of support to the communities affected (Reifels, Pietrantoni, Prati, Kim, Kilpatrick, Dyb, & O'donnell, 2013). This phase is classified as the honeymoon phase because fundraising and volunteer works are done in this stage and this comes a few weeks after the disaster according to McMahon (2011).
The Role of Cultural Competence during Any of the Phases of Psychological Disaster Response
The U.S Department of Health and Human Services (2008) defines cultural competence as a set of congruent policies, attitudes, and behaviors which come together among professionals, in an agency or system that enables situations of cross-cultural works to be effective. In this context, competence denotes having the capability to successfully function as an organization or individually in the context of cultural needs, beliefs, and behaviors offered by communities. National Association of School Psychologists (2017) asserts that having cultural competence ensures that diverse culturally and linguistically populations are not misunderstood or overlooked, and receive suitable services as required during the phases of disaster response. For instance, in the heroic phase of disaster response, cultural competence between emergency personnel and the victims will ensure that critical information communication is not delayed due to language barriers including orders of evacuation and essential disease prevention and health education information in the aftermath of the disaster. As such, the crisis team should establish relationships with service providers, community resources, and faith-based and cultural community leaders to help speed up and improve effective efforts of responses following a disaster (National Association of School Psychologists, 2017).
Being aware of one’s own cultural values, accepting the differences, managing the different dynamics, cultural knowledge development, and ability to adapt actions to fit various cultural contexts during psychological first aid enables emergency managers and officials of public health to behave in a manner that meets the diverse population needs (National Association of School Psychologists, 2017). Moreover, it assists these officials to improve health outcomes and services quality after and during the disaster response.
References
U.S Department of Health and Human Services (2008). Cultural competency in disaster
Response: a review of current concepts, policies, and practices. Retrieved July 9, 2018 from https://www.dhhs/DisasterPersonneEnvironmentalScan.pdf
McMahon, K. (2011). The psychology of disaster. Energy Bulletin , 17 (03).
National Association of School Psychologists (2017). Culturally Competent Crisis Response. Retrieved July 9, 2018 from https://www.nasponline.org/resources-and-publications/resources/diversity/cultural-competence/culturally-competent-crisis-response
Reifels, L., Pietrantoni, L., Prati, G., Kim, Y., Kilpatrick, D. G., Dyb, G., & O'donnell, M. (2013). Lessons learned about psychosocial responses to disaster and mass trauma: an international perspective. European journal of psychotraumatology , 4 (1), 22897.
