Complementary mental health interventions for disaster recovery: a review and critical appraisal of the literature

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of using non-clinical interventions for mental health recovery in a natural disaster context. The mental health interventions investigated were those that offered an alternative or complementary approach which differ from the more traditional clinical or psychiatric settings. A literature review and critical appraisal of secondary data was conducted on studies that investigated complementary mental health interventions (CMHIs) in natural disaster impacted communities. The interventions that presented from the literature search were focused on mind-body connections including: yoga, meditation, breathing techniques, and art-based programs. The literature review uncovered several themes including: an overall reduction in perceived mental health symptoms as a result of the interventions, better accessibility of CMHIs compared to clinical-based therapies, the need for collaborations to integrate CMHIs into disaster recovery and research, and the challenges in conducting research in disaster-impacted communities. Findings from the critical appraisal showed inconsistencies in the data collection approaches, limitations in data focusing on demographic characteristics, and limitations in data focusing on intervention effectiveness in different contexts. More research and more standardized measurement methods would be beneficial to the field and to assist in supporting the findings. Overall, the data from the reviewed studies found that CMHIs had a positive impact on mental health symptoms and showed advantages for use in post-disaster situations. The use of CMHIs has the potential to be an effective treatment method that can be integrated into community disaster recovery planning.