Serving an environmental disaster – such as the floods that hit Rio Grande do Sul a year ago, or the fires in Los Angeles in January this year – can have great emotional impacts. A new study showed that exposure to these extreme events repetitively can lead to the worsening mental health.
The conclusion is from researchers at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and was Posted in The Lancet Public Health magazine On Tuesday (29). According to the study, mental health worsens further when a person goes through multiple environmental disasters in a short time, as at intervals of one or two years.
The researchers analyzed individuals throughout Australia who repeatedly experienced disasters such as floods, forest fires or cyclones. The research used data from 2009 to 2019.
In total, more than 1,500 analyzed people had been exposed to at least one disaster. Their mental health was compared to 3,880 Australians with similar sociodemographic profiles, but they had not been disaster in the same period.
The work found that women, young people, indigenous populations and people in rural areas were more likely to damage mental health after repeated disasters. In addition, individuals with long -term conditions, deficiency, those with little social support, as well as owners of real estate with mortgages and tenants, have experienced higher declines in mental health from the first to subsequent disasters.
Given the findings, the study authors call for changes in the way communities are supported after recurring disasters, including a new process for screening and improved planning to support disaster recovery.
“Unfortunately, we know that future generations will face multiple disasters throughout their lives, and now it is estimated that children born today must experience seven times more disasters throughout life than past generations,” says Claire Leppold, a researcher in community health and global health resilience at the University of Melbourne, in a press release.
“We are starting to have a clearer view of what people need in their recovery after disasters and what we can do to ensure that health services, governments and emergency service organizations can effectively support people in the face of multiple disasters,” he adds.
This content was originally published in living successive environmental disasters worsening mental health, says study on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
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