Promoting mental health and resilience after a disaster

Abstract

Until recently, mental health programs during and after disasters were considered to be controversial. A disaster exposes many people to extreme stresses and injury and illness. Especially in resource-poor countries, a disaster also brings a range of problems that erode protections, increase social injustice and inequality and entail human rights violations. There is a growing international consensus on the need for a range of mental health and social interventions integrated with existing systems. The mental health and psychosocial response programs increasingly integrated into humanitarian assistance programs can be seen as an opportunity to model the introduction of mental health centrall..