Helping Children to Cope During Disasters

Seven-year-old Neil is scared whenever there is lightning as he still remembers the day when, while at home during a during a thunderstorm, the sudden electrical discharge smashed a light bulb located in the ceiling of the room he was in.
He later observed the huge cracks that appeared along a section of the kitchen’s walls as well as the ground outside, which was rent from the force of the bolt.
Neil is just one of many children who have been traumatized as a result of natural disasters. For some, it is even more traumatic when the life of a loved one is lost.
And, as Jamaica gets ready to deal with what has been predicted as an active hurricane season, the emotional needs of children have to be dealt with to better prepare them to cope during natural disasters.
Dr. Yvonnie Bailey-Davidson, consultant psychiatrist at the Ministry of Health, informs JIS News that an important way of helping children cope with disasters is to discuss the likely result of such events. “What can be done to prepare children for disasters is to discuss beforehand, what happens in a disaster, what actions they can take to minimize the dislocation and the problems and what agencies are available for help after the disaster. So, in the school system, they can talk about hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and what the children should do to prevent death or injuries during a disaster,” she advises.
This measure, she says, will reduce the trauma as “you can tell them that if they see a flooded road, they shouldn’t walk in it and if you see the river inundated you don’t cross and that kind of thing and also tell them that during a hurricane, they can talk with their parents about how they feel and they can pray about what is happening.”
Parents, she further informs, can also talk to their children about what to do in instances such as earthquakes where certain actions can be taken such as standing in a doorway.
She points out that after the event, parents can seek professional help as there are a number of services available both privately and publicly, where children and their families can seek counselling after a disaster.
Natural disasters, Dr. Bailey-Davidson says, can traumatize children in a number of ways, causing behaviour changes, anxiety problems, and adjustment problems, sleep disorders and the loss of appetite.
They may also get depressed and express grief. “Some people become psychotic, some people develop academic problems and there is also family problems, social problems and existential problems,” she explains.
Dr. Bailey-Davidson points out that what is vitally needed is an education programme that sensitizes and increases the awareness of parents, schools and the general public, as well as to enable persons to be proactive in their behaviour. “A general education programme is vital and this can be done in the media to sensitize the larger population. We can look at radio, television and newspapers and the JIS can also play a vital role in having a regular programme,” she says. She notes that persons can be bombarded with messages over a short time but it is important that this is ongoing.
She notes that other media such as billboards and posters can be used to educate the public. “Other media can be through advertisement with the use of posters, which can be posted in schools, clinics, churches and business places across the island, to get the message out that people do get affected by disasters, that they do happen but that we can help in cases of disaster,” she says.
Dr. Bailey-Davidson tells JIS News, that many of the cases she has encountered since Hurricane Ivan, are children who have developed behavioural problems. “They become more aggressive, they are disobedient and they are unable to focus on their school work as well as they are quite talkative,” she informs.
She points out that many times, these symptoms are exhibited for one, two or three months, with the child also developing anxiety and panic attacks, phobias, or just problems adjusting to the dislocation that occurred as a result of the hurricane. “Some of the children have sleeping problems like nightmares, and they even start to wet their beds,” she says.
In disasters, she says, there is loss of routine, the loss of loved ones or loss of possessions and this may cause major dislocation and major adjustment problems. “The children also have to grieve their losses and they also have to grieve over the death of a loved one and then they get depressed and then they develop grief reaction which has to be treated,” she points out.
The unpredictability of an earthquake and the severe anxiety that the tremors produce, Dr. Bailey-Davidson notes, can also create severe mental health problems in children. She says that while it might be difficult to prepare children to cope with disasters, ongoing programmes that deal with mental health issues and coping with life problems can help.
But, while it is encouraged that children be prepared to cope with disasters, over preparedness can also be a disadvantage, the consultant psychologist indicates. “What you find out is that after a time, when nothing happens, people become desensitized,” she points out. She suggests therefore, that rather than focusing on a particular event, emphasis should be placed on helping children cope with life issues.
“Therefore, the child won’t focus on say earthquakes all the time or a hurricane. He looks at it as learning life-coping skills in which he is being taught how to cope with life. Of course, during the sessions, you would talk about earthquakes,hurricanes and so on, but people do become desensitized after a time and it is as if you are not talking about anything that is fearful and making them afraid,” she says.
The images of disasters being shown on television, such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States and the tsunami in Asia last year, do traumatize persons as they watch and listen, Dr. Bailey Davidson points out.
“We need to be informed so what we need is guidance on how to deal with the information that we are getting. We might not need formal counselling as such, but we need to talk about our feelings, our attitudes, our emotions, our coping strategies on how to deal with these problems that are occurring and those that we are at risk for,” she says.
So, apart from the normal preparation measures of trimming trees and getting supplies ready in the event of a hurricane, Dr. Bailey-Davidson says parents should speak to their children about their feelings of fear, anxiety, sadness, fright, and help to calm them.
“This is a Christian society and what helps is prayer. You can use Psalms 23 or the Lord’s Prayer as a power to calm and reassure an individual. The whole issue of spirituality and focusing on higher power helps to calm the fear and empower the individual to let them feel that they have some level of mastery and control over events,” she says.
For Jamaica, hurricane preparation is a yearly event and as such Dr. Bailey-Davidson says measures should be put in place to have an ongoing public education programme to improve people’s coping abilities. “It will not only help with hurricane preparedness but help to deal with the violence in the society and just help people to cope on a day to day basis,” she emphasizes.