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

环境变化对心理健康的影响在有关当前和未来环境变化的政策和干预措施中变得越来越重要。心理健康面临的挑战是应对各种形式的灾害，包括自然灾害和技术灾害，以及环境变化的各种影响。这些灾害也发生在独特的环境景观中，在这些景观中，社会与环境的关系不同，是恢复其生活和福祉的一个组成部分。这个项目将培养一名研究生在经验、科学数据收集和分析方面的方法，探索人们和社会如何应对环境的变化，这对于制定政策和项目至关重要，这些政策和项目将有效地解决美国内外灾害后的心理健康问题。调查结果将分发给管理和制定灾害心理健康政策的组织。这项研究还促进了国际科学合作，并将扩大一个代表性不足的群体在科学领域的参与。在芝加哥大学Michael Fisch博士的指导下，Hiroko Kumaki通过比较不同的灾难心理健康干预措施，探索专家的主张和假设对人类对灾难恢复工作的反应有什么影响。这位研究人员将比较日本东北部的灾难心理健康干预措施。2011年初，日本东北部发生了大地震，引发了海啸和核泄漏，灾难以不同的方式影响了那里的环境。海啸摧毁了城镇、工厂、农场和渔港，受灾人口被转移到地势较高的地方。核灾难导致核电站释放出放射性物质，使该地区的居民流离失所。研究人员将通过一系列民族志技术，包括在这些社区进行访谈和参与观察，对受影响的城镇和人们重新安置的地方进行研究。在这样做的过程中，调查人员将评估海啸和核灾难影响地区的人口如何对不断变化的环境作出反应。研究人员还将评估灾害心理健康干预措施如何对这些受影响地区的灾害和环境变化作出反应。这项研究的结果将为灾害心理健康能够有效地根据不同受灾害影响的环境和社会的具体特征定制干预措施的不同方式提供见解。

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.