RAPID: Psychological and Social Resilience in Post-Earthquake Nepal

这个快速项目解决了人们如何应对灾害和随后的救援工作的关键问题。 灾难在世界任何地方都是出乎意料的，而且是不可能避免的。 对世界某个地区的灾害进行研究，有助于了解这些灾害是如何发生的，以及人们在其他地方如何应对这些灾害，因为它们有着广泛的相似之处。 虽然灾害研究已经有了很大的发展，但在信息丢失之前，通过快速有效地收集信息，仍然有很多东西需要学习。 例如，获得资源或足智多谋是否在灾害复原力中发挥重要作用？该项目将提供具有重要价值的信息，指导未来对美国和国外所有类型灾害的反应。维克森林大学的史蒂文·J·福尔马博士将在4月25日及随后的地震后探讨尼泊尔的灾难应对和心理健康恢复能力。该项目的主要目标是确定灾害受害者如何应对危机，追踪一些人经历情感创伤而另一些人表现出复原力的途径。 调查员将对尼泊尔拉姆容县经历了4月地震造成的不同程度破坏的城市和农村社区的社会各界人士进行研究。研究人员将从以下方面收集数据：1）直接观察救援工作，2）采访100人，讲述他们的地震和灾后经历，3）调查300名青年的心理健康状况，并将目前的心理健康措施与以前的研究中采取的措施进行比较。 由于随着时间的推移，关于受害者如何经历灾后恢复的关键数据会丢失，因此必须在可行的情况下尽快收集数据。 关于知识价值，在恢复期间而不是之后收集经验信息，使研究人员能够发展直接反映幸存者第一手信息的理论，这在灾害研究中是罕见的。就更广泛的社会影响而言，该项目的成果将有助于为全球救灾工作提供信息，增强幸存者的复原力，并通过在最需要的时候与非政府组织和尼泊尔政府分享调查结果，促进开展急需的心理健康应对工作。最后，它将为研究人员开展类似研究提供培训。

This RAPID project addresses critical questions of how people respond to disasters and subsequent relief efforts. Disasters strike unexpectedly, anywhere in the world, and are not possible to avoid. The study of disasters in one part of the world contributes to understanding how they unfold and how people respond to them elsewhere because of the broad similarities they share. Although disaster research has grown considerably, there is still much to learn by collecting information quickly and efficiently, before it is lost. For example, does access to resources or resourcefulness play a great role in disaster resiliency? This project will provide information of great value that will guide future response to disasters of all types in the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Steven J. Folmar of Wake Forest University will explore disaster response and mental-health resiliency in Nepal following the April 25 and subsequent earthquakes. The main goal of this project is to determine how disaster victims respond to crises, tracing the pathways by which some people experience emotional trauma while others demonstrate resilience. The investigator will conduct research on people from different sectors of society, in urban and rural communities in Lamjung District, Nepal that have experienced varying degrees of destruction caused by the April earthquake. The investigator will collect data from 1) direct observation of relief efforts, 2) interviewing 100 individuals recounting their earthquake and post-disaster experience, and 3) surveying mental health status among 300 youth and comparing current measures of their mental health with measures taken from them during a previous study. Since, with the passing of time, critical data on how disaster recovery is experienced by victims are lost, it is imperative to gather data as soon as feasible. Regarding intellectual merit, collecting empirical information during, not after, the period of recovery equips the investigator to develop theory that directly reflects first-hand information from survivors, which is rare in disaster research. In terms of broader societal impacts, results from this project will help inform global disaster relief efforts, enhance the resilience of survivors and contribute to the development of much-needed mental health response efforts through the sharing of findings with NGOs and the Government of Nepal at the time they are needed most. Lastly, it will provide training for researchers to conduct similar studies.