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Psychological Consequences of the Flint Water Crisis: A Scoping Review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2021

Samantha K Brooks  and
Sonny S Patel Open the ORCID record for Sonny S Patel [Opens in a new window]
Samantha K Brooks
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, King’s College London, UK
Sonny S Patel*
Affiliation:
Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Faculty of Medicine and Health, Sydney School of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia
*
Corresponding author: Sonny Patel, Email: sonny@berkeley.edu.
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Abstract*

Objective:

To summarize existing literature on the mental health impact of the Flint Water Crisis.

Methods:

In March 2020, we searched 5 databases for literature exploring the psychological consequences of the crisis. Main findings were extracted.

Results:

132 citations were screened and 11 included in the review. Results suggest a negative psychological effect caused by the water crisis, including anxiety and health worries, exacerbated by lowered trust in public health officials, uncertainty about the long-term impacts of the crisis, financial hardships, stigma, and difficulties seeking help. There was evidence that concerns about tap water continued even after the state of emergency was lifted.

Conclusions:

With a possible compound effect to residents of Flint with the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the results highlight the need for more resources for psychological health interventions in Flint as well as a need for local governments and health authorities to regain the trust of those affected by the Flint Water Crisis.

Keywords

mental healthflint water crisispublic healthliterature reviewpsychological warfare
Type
Systematic Review
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , June 2022 , pp. 1259 - 1269
Copyright
© Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2021

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Footnotes

*

This article has been corrected since its original publication. See doi:10.1017/dmp.2021.234.

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