RELEVANT
FOCUSED
READY

Effective Evidence-Based Post Disaster Recovery Interventions
Capstone Project
Faro Taug

Introduction

Discussion

Disasters are increasing in intensity, frequency, and complexity; as
experienced firsthand by numerous communities in British
Columbia, Canada in 2021. These communities faced successive
disasters of record heat, wildfires, and atmospheric river floods.
This hazard season of weather extremes demonstrated the reality
of the new normal of natural disasters and has been described as a
wake-up call, even for experts (Little, 2021). Disasters are large
scale, traumatic events that threaten harm to individuals and
communities by disrupting social networks, services, and survivor’s
mental and physical health (Gibson, Little, Cowlishaw, Toromon,
Forbes, O’Donnell, 2021, pg. 1).

This research project began with a desire to understand the
impacts that disasters have on survivors’ health and wellness, in
order to understand how to help individuals and communities to
recover from them. It was interesting to discover that Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was discussed as a disaster
impact by most of the research, regardless of disaster type or
demographic studied. It was also interesting that common disaster
recovery factors were discovered, including positive and negative
reinforcing subfactors. Positive recovery factors promoted positive
recovery outcomes and included social resources. Negative
recovery factors promoted negative recovery outcomes and
included previous trauma and degree of exposure to the event.
These findings demonstrated that there is significant evidence of
both common disaster impacts and common disaster recovery
factors.

Focus on the acute, response phase of a disaster can reduce
access to interventions for individuals who have experienced
excessive trauma and need mental health support during extended
recovery periods (Abramson et al., 2015). Survivors exhibit a wide
range of responses that can vary from brief distress to long term
mental health illness and other health issues. Lack of access to
supportive interventions can in turn can promote negative
outcomes for recovery for individuals and communities.

Background
This new normal of natural disasters is impacting more and more
communities annually. In the case of B.C., Canada, some of the
same communities experienced successive, multiple type disaster
events within the same year. Greatly complicating and extending
those community's recovery period and risk for negative mental
and physical health outcomes. This increasing need for individual
and community level recovery from disasters is creating an urgent
need for effective, evidence-based interventions to assist the
recovery of affected individuals and communities (Commers,
Morival, Devries, 2014). In particular, the need is for interventions
that can be deployed in the difficult recovery phase in which
resources are scarce, by being effective, easy to deploy, low cost
and without the need of highly specialized health professionals.

Methods
This research project is a qualitative study of peer reviewed
secondary sources such as journal articles from the JIBC library
database.

Results/Findings
Three ready-made evidence-based recovery interventions were
identified including:
1) The Collective Narrative Therapy (CNT) model can be used to
create a community storying event for affected communities to
collectively acknowledge the disaster, promoting healing and
social networking (Breckenridge & James 2012). For example, a
“Lytton Strong” community block party, and social networking
campaign.
2) The Happy Sad Letter Box (HSLB) project can put locked boxes in
schools for children to put letters in. School counselors can then
identify children and young people and families at risk for
developing psychological issues for further assistance
(Commers, Morival, Devries, 2014).
3) The Skills for Life Adjustment and Resilience (SOLAR)
programme teaches healthy living skills over five sessions. It was
found to be effective for reducing distress and PTSD in disaster
survivors. It can be taught by trained non specialists, and
addresses sub-clinical symptoms, reducing stress on
professional health services (Gibson et al. , 2021).

The research project then set out to discover if there were effective
disaster recovery interventions which could address common
disaster impacts such as PTSD, thereby promoting positive recovery
outcomes for individuals and communities. It was interesting to
discover that there were effective evidence-based recovery
interventions, which have immediate implications for practise. It
was especially significant that these interventions have been
proven to reduce PSTD, the most commonly identified disaster
impact. As a result, these interventions have the potential to
significantly improve the recovery outcomes of individuals and
communities affected by disasters.

Recommendations
This project provided evidence-based research on recovery
which can be used by emergency managers in the field to inform
evidence-based interventions for individuals and communities in
post disaster settings. Including, common recovery impacts and
recovery factors. In addition to several very promising evidencebased recovery interventions that could be readily deployed.
Emergency managers can use this research on recovery impacts
and recovery factors to aid in recovery planning. As well as the
research on effective evidence-based interventions, CNT, HSLB and
SOLAR to provide immediate assistance to communities and
individuals in recovery from disasters. In addition, the research is
applicable to communities who are not currently in a disaster. Who
wish to plan more effectively for recovery if the unthinkable disaster
event occurs in their community. Greatly improving the probability
of positive recovery outcomes from a disaster at the individual and
community level.

References
Breckenridge, J., & James, K. (2012). Therapeutic responses to
communities affected by disasters: The contribution of family
therapy. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Family
Therapy, 33(3), 242-256. https://10.1017/aft.2012.29
Commers, M. J., Morival, M., & Devries, M. W. (2014). Toward bestpractice post-disaster mental health promotion for children: Sri
Lanka. Health Promotion International, 29(1), 165-170.
https://10.1093/heapro/das047
Gibson, K., Little, J., Cowlishaw, S., Ipitoa Toromon, T., Forbes, D., &
O'Donnell, M. (2021). Piloting a scalable, post-trauma
psychosocial intervention in Tuvalu: The Skills for Life
Adjustment and Resilience (SOLAR) program. European Journal
of Psychotraumatology, 12(1), 1-15.
https://10.1080/20008198.2021.1948253
Little, S. (December 26, 2021). Flooding, fires, and heat: A year of
unprecedented weather extremes in B.C. Global News.
https://globalnews.ca/news/8438007/bc-year-in-reviewweather-extremes/

Bachelor of Emergency and Security Management
Justice Institute of British Columbia