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The Support to Mitigate the Impact of Suicide for Disaster Aid Workers of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2023

Naru Fukuchi Open the ORCID record for Naru Fukuchi [Opens in a new window] ,
Jun Shigemura Open the ORCID record for Jun Shigemura [Opens in a new window]  and
Akiko Obara
Naru Fukuchi*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Miyagi, Japan Miyagi Disaster Mental Health Care Center, Miyagi, Japan
Jun Shigemura
Affiliation:
Faculty of Health Sciences, Mejiro University, Saitama, Japan
Akiko Obara
Affiliation:
Miyagi Mental Health and Welfare Center, Miyagi, Japan
*
Corresponding author: Naru Fukuchi; Email: narufukunarufuku@gmail.com.
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Abstract

Suicide substantially impacts disaster-affected communities due to pre-existing psychosocial effects caused by the disaster. Following the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, local disaster aid workers had overworked for months, and many workers eventually died by suicide. Although many workplaces suffered this dual damage, there is limited literature on psychosocial postvention in this context. This study reports the activities of individual/group postventions provided to these aid workers. The bereaved person expressed grief for the loss of their colleagues and anger for not being protected. The postvention observed unusual and distinctive group dynamics. It was essential for mental health professionals to address 2 types of traumatic exposures in the group programs —trauma from the disaster and their colleagues’ deaths due to suicide. These postvention programs might be beneficial in maintaining aid workers’ mental health and helping them cope with the loss of their colleagues.

Keywords

posttraumatic stress disorderscommunity mental health servicesemergency psychiatric servicesoccupational healthearthquakes
Type
Report from the Field
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 17 , 2023 , e517
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health

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