Mental Health Services Required after Disasters: Learning from the Lasting Effects of Disasters

Table 1

Groups with different mental health needs following disasters.

(i) People who are at risk of distress, mental health problems, and
mental disorders, principally anxiety, depressive, and substance
use disorders, consequent on their direct and indirect
involvement in events and who present new and additional
demands on mental health services.
(ii) People who have continuing needs for mental health services
for preexisting conditions, but whose care is threatened
by challenges to the “business continuity” of preexisting
mental health services consequent on network and community
dislocation.
(iii) People whose involvement in an emergency provokes or
precipitates the relapse of a preexisting mental disorder.
(iv) People who are responders and whose mental health might be
put at raised risk consequent on their work.