CLIMATE PRELIMS Flashcards
“A sudden, calamitous event, bringing great damage, loss, destruction and devastation to life and property” (Asian Disaster Preparedness Center-ADPC, 2012)
DISASTER
“a serious disruption of the functioning of society, causing widespread human, material or environmental losses, which exceed the ability of the affected people to cope, using their human resources” (Adelman, 2011)
DISASTER
a salient factor that needs to be addressed properly
DISASTER RISK
“the probability that a community’s structure or geographic area is to be damaged or disrupted by the impact of a particular hazard, on account of its nature, construction and proximity to a hazardous area” (ADPC, 2012)
DISASTER RISK
These originate from the different “forces” of nature (geological, meteorological, hydrometeorological and biological).
NATURAL DISASTERS
These disasters occur due to people’s actions against human, material and environment. These include transport and industrial accidents, such as, air and train crashes, chemical spills, and building collapses.
Human-made disasters
Natural Types of Disasters
Agricultural diseases and pests
Storm surge
Drought and water shortage - El Niño
Earthquakes
Hurricanes and tropical storms
Landslide and debris flow
Thunderstorms and lightning
Tornadoes
Tsunamis
Wildfires
Sinkholes
Emergency diseases (pandemic influenza)
Extreme heat
Floods and flash floods
La Nina
Human-Made and Technological Types of Disasters
Hazardous materials
Power service disruption and blackout
Nuclear power plant and nuclear blast
Radiological emergencies
Chemical threat and biological weapons
Cyber attacks
Explosion
Civil unrest
The amount of exposure to the disaster is highly related to risk of future mental problems. At highest risk are those that go through the disaster themselves. Next are those in close contact with victims. At lower risk of lasting impact are those who only had indirect exposure, such as news of the severe health problems.
Severity of exposure (Risk factors underlying disasters)
Almost always, women or girls suffer more negative effects than do men or boys. Disaster recovery is more stressful when children are present in the home. Women with spouses also experience more distress during recovery. Having a family member in the home who is extremely distressed is related to more stress for everyone. Marital stress has been found to increase after disasters. Also, conflicts between family members or lack of support in the home make it harder to recover from disasters.
Gender and family (Risk factors underlying disasters)
Adults who are in the age range of 40-60 are likely to be more distressed after disasters. The thinking is that if one is in that age range, he/she has more demands from job and family. Research on how children react to natural disasters is still limited at this point in time. In general, children show more severe distress after disasters than do adults. Higher stress in the parents related to worse recovery in children.
Age (Risk factors underlying disasters)
Were not functioning well before the disaster
Have had no experience dealing with disasters
Must deal with other stressors after the disaster
Have poor self-esteem
Think they are uncared for by others
Think they have little control over what happens to them
Lack the capacity to manage stress
Other factors specific to the survivor (Risk factors underlying disasters)
Bereavement (death of someone close)
Injury to self or another family member
Life threat
Panic, horror, or feelings like that during the disaster
Being separated from family (especially among youth)
Great loss of property
Displacement (being forced to leave home)
Other factors have also been found to predict worse outcomes (Risk factors underlying disasters)
There is a strong body of evidence that these risk factors can be made worse if the disaster occurs in a developing country. Disasters in developing countries, like the Philippines, have more severe mental health impact than do disasters in developed countries. This is true even with less serious disasters. For example, natural disasters are generally thought to be less serious than human-caused. In developing countries, however, natural disasters have more severe effects than do human-caused disasters in developed countries.
Developing countries (Risk factors underlying disasters)
The support of others can be both a risk and a resilience factor. Social support can weaken after disasters. This may be due to stress and the need for members of the support network to get on with their own lives. Sometimes the responses from others disaster victims rely on for support are negative. For example, someone may play down their problems, needs, or pain, or expect them to recover more quickly than is realistic. This is strongly linked to long- term distress in trauma survivors.
Low or negative social support (Risk factors underlying disasters)
