Psychosocial support after disasters in the Netherlands
Citation: Jacobs J, Oosterbeek M, Tummers LG, et al. The organization of post-disaster psychosocial support in the Netherlands: A meta-synthesis. European journal of psychotraumatology. 2019 Jan 22;10(1):1544024.
What is this? Some COVID-19 patients will develop psychiatric and psychosocial problems. Existing research on post-disaster psychosocial support might provide useful information for policy makers.
In this qualitative evidence synthesis, the authors searched for studies evaluating the organization of post-disaster psychosocial support in the Netherlands following 12 Dutch disasters and major crises between 1992 and 2014. They restricted their searches to articles published between 1990 and 2014. They included 80 evaluations.
What was found: Post-disaster psychosocial support must be up to date, allow for flexibility to reflect the uniqueness of each disaster (especially slow-onset disasters), be well implemented and be regularly practiced with an emphasis on cultural sensitivity.
Information delivery during disasters should be transparent and there should be rapid monitoring of social media.