Research Brief
Principal Researcher
Faro Taug
Instructor
Beth Larcombe

Effective Evidence-Based Post Disaster Recovery
Interventions
This project addresses the increasing need for effective evidencebased interventions to assist individuals and communities recover
from disasters by providing three readymade recovery interventions
proven to address the most common disaster impact, Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Research Problem & Rationale for Study
Research Field
Disaster Recovery
Program
BESMS
Course
ESMS 4900: Capstone
Research Project
Funding Sources
N/A: Course-based
Project.

As more individuals and communities are impacted by disasters, the
need for evidence-based recovery interventions is increasing.
However, often professional emergency managers do not have time
to do time consuming research to stay abreast of current discoveries
and applications in the field. By providing research on recovery,
including readymade interventions that emergency managers can
easily deploy, recovery outcomes will be improved for affected
individuals and the community as a whole.

Methods
This research project was a secondary source, qualitative research
study using peer reviewed journal articles from the JIBC library
database.

Results/Findings
Research was discovered which can inform practice, such as the
most common disaster impact, PTSD. As well as common recovery
factors which can be both protective and negative outcome
reinforcing. In addition, three ready-made evidence-based recovery
interventions were identified: Collective Narrative Therapy (CNT),
Happy Sad Letter Box (HSLB) and the Skills for Life Adjustment and
Resilience program (SOLAR). These interventions were especially
significant because they were low cost and could be used without
the need for scarce resources such as highly trained medical
professionals.

Conclusions / Recommendations
There was much evidence discovered in the research on recovery
that has immediate practical applications for emergency Managers
in the field. However, much more research in this area is needed.

JIBC Research Brief
Structured Abstract
Introduction:
Natural disasters are increasing in frequency and severity, creating an urgent need for
effective, evidence-based interventions to assist affected individuals and communities to
recover. This study describes several such interventions, as well as other research which may
provide evidence to inform individual and community recovery planning, including, common
recovery impacts, and recovery factors.
Methods:
This research project is a qualitative study of peer reviewed secondary sources 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,
experiences of loss and surviving to promote healing (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 (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, Little,
Cowlishaw, Ipitoa Toromon, Forbes, O'Donnell, 2021).

JIBC Research Brief
Discussion:
This paper identified common disaster impacts and positive and negative
recovery factors. As well as a connection between individual and community
level recovery. In addition to three peer reviewed post disaster recovery
interventions. These interventions have been proven to reduce PSTD and
other issues that disaster survivors suffer from, significantly
improving recovery outcomes.
Practical Applications:
The research discovered in this project is practically impactful in four main
ways. First by identifying common disaster impacts, such as PTSD,
emergency managers will know what their community members are facing, as
a start to addressing it. Further by understanding the factors which promote
positive recovery such as social resources, emergency managers can work at
providing these to their communities. Further by understanding the connection
between individual and community level recovery, emergency managers can
provide resources and interventions at both the individual and community
level, greatly increasing their impact. Finally, this study identified several
ready-mades, effective, evidence-based recovery interventions that can be
easily deployed in the field by emergency managers who are currently
assisting individuals in their communities recover from disasters.

JIBC Research Brief

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 best-practice 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