Doctoral Dissertation Research: Assessing the Effects of Environmental Change in Disaster Mental Health

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

The impact of environmental change on mental health has become increasingly important in policy and interventions regarding ongoing and future environmental change. Disaster Mental Health faces the challenge of responding to various forms of disasters, including natural disasters and technological disasters, as well as various effects of environmental change. These disasters also occur in distinct environmental landscapes, in which societies relate differently to their environment as an integral part of rehabilitating their life and wellbeing. This project, which trains a graduate student in methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, explores how people and societies respond to the changes in their environment is crucial for developing policies and programs that will effectively address mental health concerns after disasters within and beyond the United States. Findings will be disseminated to organizations that manage and develop policy for disaster mental health. The research also fosters international scientific cooperation, and will broaden participation of an underrepresented group in the sciences. Hiroko Kumaki, under the supervision of Dr. Michael Fisch of the University of Chicago, explore what impact expert claims and assumptions have on human responses to disaster recovery efforts by comparing different Disaster Mental Health interventions. The researcher will compare Disaster Mental Health interventions in northeastern Japan where a massive earthquake triggered tsunamis and nuclear fallouts in early 2011, and where the disasters have affected the environment in distinct ways. The tsunami wiped away towns, factories, farms, and fishing ports, relocating the affected population to higher grounds. The nuclear disaster led to radioactive release from the power plants, dislocating the population in the area. The researcher will conduct research the affected towns and the places where people have relocated, through a range of ethnographic techniques, including interviews and participant observation in those communities. In so doing, the investigators will assess how the populations in the tsunami and nuclear disaster affected regions have responded to their changing environments. The investigators will also assess how Disaster Mental Health interventions have responded to the disasters and the environmental changes in these affected regions. Findings from this research will provide insight into the different ways in which Disaster Mental Health could effectively tailor interventions to the specific characteristics of different disaster-affected environments and societies.