IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/nathaz/v85y2017i3d10.1007_s11069-016-2649-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Older people’s psychosocial needs in a post-disaster rural community of China: an exploratory study

Author

Listed:
  • Ke Cui

    (Sichuan University)

  • Timothy Sim

    (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

Abstract

Older people are arguably one of the most vulnerable groups during a disaster. Existing studies either in China or in other countries predominantly focus on the more Western, pathology-based mental health approach in addressing the impact of disasters on older victims and their needs. However, the concept of ‘psychosocial’ recognises that problems caused by emergencies can simultaneously be of a social nature and a psychological one. This concept emerged from a growing critique on individual oriented mental health approach in disaster contexts. The present study was conducted to explore older people’s needs from a psychosocial perspective. The research site was a Chinese rural community located in the epicentre of ‘5.12’ Wenchuan earthquake (Ms = 8.0) occurred in 2008. The authors conducted content analyses on the qualitative in-depth interviews with 10 (5 males and 5 females) out of 30 older persons from this community. The findings revealed three major psychosocial problems: (1) constant fear of recurring debris flows; (2) sense of helplessness; and (3) disruption to previous social network. Indubitably, the participants reported family members and neighbours as their major sources of social support in emergency situations. This exploratory study argues that older people being exposed to disasters will not only develop psychological problems but also suffer disruption to their social support network and puts forward that empowering family and strengthening community cohesion are important initiatives for helping professionals to promote older people’s psychosocial well-being and enhance their resilience to natural disasters.

Suggested Citation

  • Ke Cui & Timothy Sim, 2017. "Older people’s psychosocial needs in a post-disaster rural community of China: an exploratory study," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 85(3), pages 1577-1590, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:85:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s11069-016-2649-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s11069-016-2649-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11069-016-2649-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11069-016-2649-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Becker, S.M., 2009. "Psychosocial care for women survivors of the tsunami disaster in India," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 99(4), pages 654-658.
    2. Shuzhen Zhu & Jie Hu & Jimmy T Efird, 2012. "Role of social support in cognitive function among elders," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(15‐16), pages 2118-2125, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Christoph Clar & Lukas Löschner & Ralf Nordbeck & Tatjana Fischer & Thomas Thaler, 2021. "Population dynamics and natural hazard risk management: conceptual and practical linkages for the case of Austrian policy making," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 105(2), pages 1765-1796, January.
    2. Fengwan Zhang & Xueling Bao & Xin Deng & Wei Wang & Jiahao Song & Dingde Xu, 2022. "Does Trust Help to Improve Residents’ Perceptions of the Efficacy of Disaster Preparedness? Evidence from Wenchuan and Lushan Earthquakes in Sichuan Province, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-15, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Krishnan, Supriya & Patnaik, Ila, 2018. "Health and Disaster Risk Management in India," Working Papers 18/241, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    2. Xianghe Zhu & Martina Luchetti & Damaris Aschwanden & Amanda A. Sesker & Yannick Stephan & Angelina R. Sutin & Antonio Terracciano, 2023. "Multidimensional Assessment of Subjective Well-being and Risk of Dementia: Findings from the UK Biobank Study," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 629-650, February.
    3. Kyle Lipinski & Lucia L Liu & Paul WC Wong, 2016. "The effectiveness of psychosocial interventions implemented after the Indian Ocean Tsunami: A systematic review," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 62(3), pages 271-280, May.
    4. Taiji Noguchi & Ippei Nojima & Tomoe Inoue-Hirakawa & Hideshi Sugiura, 2019. "The Association between Social Support Sources and Cognitive Function among Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A One-Year Prospective Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-9, October.
    5. Panagiota Koutsimani & Anthony Montgomery & Elvira Masoura & Efharis Panagopoulou, 2021. "Burnout and Cognitive Performance," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-18, February.
    6. Lynne Keevers & Deborah Gough & Jacqui Cameron & Anthony McKnight & Saskia Ebejer & Susan Duchesne & Adam Gowen & Karen Fildes & Maria Mackay, 2024. "Practices Supporting Community Recovery and Healing from Climate-Related Disasters: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(6), pages 1-26, June.
    7. Chiyoe Murata & Tami Saito & Masashige Saito & Katsunori Kondo, 2019. "The Association between Social Support and Incident Dementia: A 10-Year Follow-Up Study in Japan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-10, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:85:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s11069-016-2649-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.