Disaster Recovery and the Road Ahead - IGNOU

It is, therefore, essential that social welfare and psychological support
measures should have a clear understanding of these myths surrounding
human behaviour. Such measures should be considered immediately
after a disaster event, so that they could be made a vital part of a
rehabilitation programme.
It should include:
Identification of Key Problems
Appointment of Counsellors and Psychiatrists
Making Use of Social Networking Mechanisms and Stress
Management
Counselling, especially Peer Group Counselling
Arranging Street Plays/Nukkad Nataks and Face-to-Face Interaction
Disaster survivors normally experience a range of psychological and physiological reactions. The
reactions of survivors may become more intense as the
amount of disruption to their lives increases. The strength
and type of reaction varies with each person and depends
upon several factors:
Source: Street Play / Google Images /
Jeevika.org
affected person normally faces. These are:
Impact Phase
Inventory Phase
Rescue Phase
Recovery Phase
i) In the impact phase, survivors do not panic and may,
in fact, show no emotion. They do what they must to
respond to the situation, and try to keep themselves and
their families alive
Prior experience with a similar event
Time and intensity of disruption
Emotional strength of individual
Source: 2009-Andhra-Pradesh/
Google Images
Presence of feelings that there is no escape
Survivors may go through distinct emotional phases
following a disaster. There are four distinct phases that an
ii)
In the inventory phase, which immediately follows the
disaster event, survivors are engaged in assessing the
damage and trying to locate other survivors. During this
phase, routine social ties tend to pave way for more
functional ones, required for initial response activities
such as searching for family members and seeking
medical assistance
Source: Photo Gallery: Disaster Relief and
Rehabilitation/The Family International FIles
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