Community Counseling in Disaster Situations
When a community-wide disaster hits, widespread confusion and panic are common in the populace. For these people, pain from loss of homes, loved ones, and community devastation is compounded by their need for recovery services and psychological treatment to help with recovery.
Community Counseling Links
With so many people in need when disaster strikes, the leadership of community counselors is essential to help victims organize tasks, streamline services, and rebuild their communities.
Disasters create upheaval that disrupt lives. Economic, political, and social turmoil create barriers to recovery, requiring leaders in the community to meet with victims and discover their needs.
According to “Post-Disaster Social Justice Group Work and Group Supervision,” published in The Journal for Specialists in Group Work, the focus in post-disaster counseling is helping the survivors to understand their situations, and create pathways to recovery.
People in disaster situations frequently experience anxiety over relocating, depression over loss of home and possessions, and grief over loss of loved ones. But immediately following a disaster, counselors must emphasize daily challenges before turning their attention to deeper psychological issues.
The article, by authors Fred Bernak and Rita Chi-Yang Chung, notes that survivors are often disorganized in planning and thinking, and many become overwhelmed at the tasks set before them.
Community counselors first meet with the survivors to help with daily problem solving and organizing. For example, in the aftermath of a disaster, survivors might feel so devastated that they are in shock. A community counselor would meet with these survivors and normalize the sense of loss and devastation.
Once the survivors are in a more calm state, the counselor would help to organize the steps the survivors must take. This includes finding shelter, food, water, medical supplies, or anything else the survivors require.
After the counselor addresses basic survival needs, the counselor should turn his or her attention to the psychological welfare of the survivors. For survivors, group counseling is an effective intervention.
Bernak and Chung write that group counseling provides a feeling of universality for survivors. Sharing disaster stories and allowing victims to explore coping strategies with each other reassures those who believe their experience was unique or abnormal.
Rebuilding after a disaster takes time, and not all mental health problems are easily solved. Nevertheless, community counselors are important leaders in times of crises, helping individuals on the long road to recovery.