Psychological Issues In Mental Health

Every year natural calamities, disasters, storms, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, terrorism, extreme heat and climatic changes put people in psychological stress. Suddenly when people face disasters like earth quakes, they undergo trauma and lose faith in life. They become anxious and nervous with sudden changes in the environment. For example Katrina had made thousands of US citizens’ homeless and properties of many people got damages. When a natural disaster or conflict destroys cities, homes and markets, or when hunger and disease threaten to spread, people caught in the middle are simply looking to survive (USAID). The psychological issues faced by the victims severely impact their health and they lose interest in life. The initial First

The psychological support should have a mission to help the needy during emergency situations for example the agency should react immediately if earthquake occurs. The psychological support agency should collaborate with government agencies, criminal justice departments, municipalities and local community for providing services. For example Inter Agency Standing Committee Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in Emergency Settings (IASC, 2007) were developed through an comprehensive process, with input from UN agencies, NGOs and Universities. Another agency International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) provides humanitarian help not only with traditional relief aid such as shelter, food distribution and basic wellbeing care, but also with psychosocial support. Psychosocial support is a vital part of the IFRC’s emergency response. It helps persons and communities to heal the psychological wounds and rebuild social structures after an emergency or a critical event. It can help change people into active survivors rather than passive

The skilled manpower must be able to counsel people who belong to different age groups for example an expert should counsel a child who lost parents in natural calamity. Psychological support skills as self-talk management and effective goal setting influence learning and performance positively by way of their effects on a range of psychological abilities, such as the ability to sustain a high level of self-confidence and motivation (Western, 2000).

Services provided by psychological support agency The psychological support agencies play a vital role because they make people to come out of fear about a particular incident. For example if earthquake occur then people might lose their family members, lose their properties and also their livelihood etc. The following are the major roles and responsibilities of an ideal psychological support agency:

• Promote a community-based approach and ensure community involvement in needs assessment, decision-making, program identification, implementation, monitoring and