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      Social and occupational factors associated with psychological distress and disorder among disaster responders: a systematic review

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          Abstract

          Background

          When disasters occur, there are many different occupational groups involved in rescue, recovery and support efforts. This study aimed to conduct a systematic literature review to identify social and occupational factors affecting the psychological impact of disasters on responders.

          Methods

          Four electronic literature databases (MEDLINE®, Embase, PsycINFO® and Web of Science) were searched and hand searches of reference lists were carried out. Papers were screened against specific inclusion criteria (e.g. published in peer-reviewed journal in English; included a quantitative measure of wellbeing; participants were disaster responders). Data was extracted from relevant papers and thematic analysis was used to develop a list of key factors affecting the wellbeing of disaster responders.

          Results

          Eighteen thousand five papers were found and 111 included in the review. The psychological impact of disasters on responders appeared associated with pre-disaster factors (occupational factors; specialised training and preparedness; life events and health), during-disaster factors (exposure; duration on site and arrival time; emotional involvement; peri-traumatic distress/dissociation; role-related stressors; perceptions of safety, threat and risk; harm to self or close others; social support; professional support) and post-disaster factors (professional support; impact on life; life events; media; coping strategies).

          Conclusions

          There are steps that can be taken at all stages of a disaster (before, during and after) which may minimise risks to responders and enhance resilience. Preparedness (for the demands of the role and the potential psychological impact) and support (particularly from the organisation) are essential. The findings of this review could potentially be used to develop training workshops for professionals involved in disaster response.

          Electronic supplementary material

          The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40359-016-0120-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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          Most cited references134

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          Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders.

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                samantha.k.brooks@kcl.ac.uk
                rebecca.r.dunn@kcl.ac.uk
                Richard.Amlot@phe.gov.uk
                sososanta@aol.com
                gideon.rubin@kcl.ac.uk
                Journal
                BMC Psychol
                BMC Psychol
                BMC Psychology
                BioMed Central (London )
                2050-7283
                26 April 2016
                26 April 2016
                2016
                : 4
                : 18
                Affiliations
                [ ]King’s College London, Department of Psychological Medicine, Cutcombe Road, London, SE5 9RJ UK
                [ ]Public Health England, Emergency Response Department Science and Technology, Health Protection and Medical Directorate, Porton Down, Salisbury, Wilts SP4 0JG UK
                Article
                120
                10.1186/s40359-016-0120-9
                4845476
                27114240
                43c8bdad-c02d-4a01-89a3-db7a26b67cb3
                © Brooks et al. 2016

                Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

                History
                : 2 November 2015
                : 29 March 2016
                Funding
                Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000272, National Institute for Health Research;
                Award ID: HPRU-2012-10414
                Categories
                Research Article
                Custom metadata
                © The Author(s) 2016

                disasters,disaster response,psychological impact,systematic review,wellbeing

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