Abstract
This paper investigates stress related psychological morbidity in individuals who experienced two disasters 11 months apart (wildfire and earthquake) in a rural area of Greece. A sample of 150 participants has been assessed after the wildfires and after the earthquake using the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised. Survivors had elevated levels of psychopathology in all subscales of the SCL-90–R after the earthquake. Significant risk factors for further development of psychopathology were damages to property and complete loss of property from both disasters. Double disasters can cause considerable psychological symptoms in victims and there are reasons for policy makers to create services in order to help and improve the mental health of those affected but also to help them rebuild their property.
Highlights
Natural disasters are frequent events in Greece
To investigate the differences of psychological symptoms as they were measured with the SCL-90-R scale between the two assessments a paired test was used
As the variables did not conform to a normal distribution, a non-parametric test was used (Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test)
Summary
Natural disasters are frequent events in Greece. It is estimated that from 1980 to 2008, 61 natural disasters happened and the average number of people killed per year were 54 while the average number of affected people per year was 10,426. Earthquakes and wildfires are among the most frequent natural disasters and they have caused the most profound economic damages (EM-DAT, 2010). In August of 2007 an intense and destructive wildfire broke out in the Peloponnesus peninsula in Greece. This was the worst of the century in Greece. Sixty to eighty people were reported killed and 5,392 people were affected from the disaster (EM-DAT, 2010). A national disaster was declared and the areas affected by the fires were designated for further support
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