Evidence Aid bulletin: 20 October 2022
Below is Evidence Aid’s October 2022 bulletin, containing shortened versions of three of our recent summaries. Please forward this to others who might be interested. Anyone who would like to receive these monthly bulletins directly or has questions about our work should contact Jane Copsey (info@evidenceaid.org).
Public engagement with pre-incident information materials for initial response to a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) incident. Citation: Carter H, et al. Recommendations for improving public engagement with pre-incident information materials for initial response to a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) incident: A systematic review. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. 2020;51:101796.
The harms arising from chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) incidents might be reduced by providing the public with pre-incident information to improve their preparedness and response. This review looks at the effects of a variety of pre-incident information on public preparedness before CBRN incidents and found that providing educational, pre-incident materials increased preparedness knowledge, behaviour and intentions among the public. The authors provide a set of recommendations on what should be included in pre-incident information, the methods to communicate it and meeting the need for higher intensity pre-incident educational materials. They also point out the need for research into effects over the long-term and assessments of the public’s knowledge and misconceptions about hazardous agents and CBRN disasters in order to improve the design and effectiveness of public information interventions. (Full summary available in our Resilient Health Systems and Managing Physical Injuries collections.)
Notifying survivors of mental health services after a disaster. Citation: Langan JC, et al. Survivor Notification of Post-Disaster Mental Health Services: An Integrative Review. Issues in Mental Health Nursing. 2018;39(7):568-574. (Note: Not open access.)
Timely engagement with mental health services may help survivors of a disaster cope with any trauma-related issues and it’s important to identify effective ways to notify them of the availability of these services. This review includes a total of 18 studies of both formal and informal notifications of the availability of mental health services, many of which related to Hurricane Katrina in the USA in August 2005. Formal notifications were often provided through healthcare providers (mainly hospitals) and included a range of notification categories (letters, follow-up referrals and outreach services). Informal notifications mainly relied on people in the community (including family, friends and clergy) to assist disaster survivors with mental health support and counselling. The authors concluded that disaster survivors need variable levels of mental health support, and that notifications need to be provided in collaboration between mental health professionals and other relevant actors. (Full summary available in our Resilient Health Systems, Windstorms, and Managing Mental Injuries collections.)
Psychological therapies for chronic post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults. Citation: Bisson JI, et al. Psychological therapies for chronic post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2013;12:CD003388.
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychological condition that can occur after someone experiences a traumatic event. This Cochrane Review sought evidence on the effects of a variety of psychological therapies that might be used in its treatment. The treatments evaluated include individual and group trauma‐focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TFCBT), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and non-trauma‐focused cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), amongst others. The findings of the review suggest that those three therapies (TFCBT, EMDR and individual CBT that was not trauma-focused) might achieve better outcomes for adults with PTSD than usual care, although this is based on very low certainty evidence. The authors of the review also concluded that using psychological therapies immediately is more effective than usual care or delayed therapy for adults with PTSD. (Full summary available in our Resilient Health Systems and Managing Mental Injuries collections.)
We hope that this bulletin, the collections we link to in the above, and all our resources (EvidenceAid.org) are helpful. We would be pleased to hear from you with suggestions for how we can improve what we do. We will be sending out our monthly Evidence Aid newsletter in the next few weeks, and if you would like to receive our bulletins or newsletters directly, please contact info@evidenceaid.org.