Disaster, Mass Trauma, and Mental Health: Focus on Developing Countries

Call for Papers

Over the last several years, the world has witnessed numerous disasters never seen before in history. The disasters include both natural such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and extreme weather conditions as well as those arising from political conflict and terrorism. Many low and middle income countries have been hit particularly hard with such disasters over the recent years. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report noted that due to coastal flooding occasioned by climate change, many large cities of the world may be submerged and disappear in the next fifty years. Among the cities in the developing world facing this fate, Lagos, Liberia, Abidjan (all in West Africa) were mentioned. Political conflict and terrorism are also threats to the integrity of various regions of Asia and Africa.

Both natural and manmade disasters have immediate and long-term health and mental health consequences. Manmade disasters involve complex ethnopolitical and psychosocial, religious, and economic factors. Natural disasters may partly be accounted by the climate change. There is a need to expand our understanding on the factors that cause or contribute to these disasters, how individuals cope with them, and the strategies that may exert preventive measures in both the causes and effects of these disasters. We invite investigators to contribute both original research and review articles that will advance our understanding on this subject matter or generate new ideas to explore. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Recent advances in disaster management
• Mental health consequences of natural and manmade disasters
• Individual and societal coping strategies to deal with disasters

Interested authors are encouraged to discuss the idea of their manuscript with the editor for its suitability for this special issue. A preauthorization by the editor will not guarantee acceptance of the manuscript, which will still go through the usual peer-review process.

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jeph/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/jeph/dmtm/ according to the following timetable:

Lead Guest Editor

• Richard Uwakwe, Faculty of Medicine, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nnewi Campus, Nigeria

Guest Editors

• Mehrul Hasnain, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, St. John's Newfoundland, Canada
• David M. Ndetei, Faculty of Medicine, University of Nairobi, Kenya
• Seggane Musisi, Faculty of Medicine, Makerere University, Uganda
• Povl Munk Jorgensen, Department of Psychiatric Research, Aarhus Psychiatric Hospital, University of Aarhus, Denmark