This disaster complexity case study examines Spain's deadliest train derailment that occurred on July 24, 2013 on the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. Train derailments are typically survivable. However, in this case, human error was a primary factor as the train driver powered the Alvia train into a left curve at more than twice the posted speed. All 13 cars came off the rails with many of the carriages careening into a concrete barrier lining the curve, leading to exceptional mortality and injury. Among the 224 train occupants, 80 (36%) were killed and all of the remaining 144 (4%) were injured. The official investigative report determined that this crash was completely preventable. KEYWORDSanthropogenic disaster; complex disaster; complexity science; disaster cascade; human-generated disaster; mass casualty incident; risk landscape; technological disaster; train derailment; transportation disasterThis case study was created by assembling a team of expert co-authors, including a mechanical engineer who is a renowned authority on transportation disasters, a trauma surgeon who directs a vehicle crash research center, and a team of disaster psychologists from Spain, rounded off by specialists in disaster health and complexity sciences. The complementary vantage points of these subject matter experts were blended together to reconstruct the cascading sequence of harmful events that took place. First, the engineer's perspective describes the mechanics of derailment and details the destructive demise of the train. Second, the surgeon tells how the passengers sustained deadly and injurious medical trauma as the carriages overturned, collided, and skidded along the retaining wall. Third, a team of Spanish disaster psychologists who respond to national emergencies explains the rippling psychosocial consequences that expand to affect the train crash survivors, the family members of the injured and deceased, the rescue personnel, the local population, and the citizens of Spain.This case study presents an interesting contrast to the official crash investigation. Employing simplicity thinking and linear logic, the official findings and the judicial rulings determined that the train driver was "exclusively" responsible for the crash. The analysis presented here applies complex systems thinking both upstream and downstream from the moment of the crash. The expert contributions tell the downstream sequence that began as the train entered the curve at excessive speed: derailment, train rollover and destruction, occupant death and injury, and psychological trauma and loss. Upstream, it was possible to identify a broader latticework of causal factors. This upstream component is particularly useful when searching for a more comprehensive set of preventive interventions CONTACT James M. Shultz

Following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Ecuador on 16 April 2016, multiple salient public health concerns were raised, including the need to provide mental health and psychosocial support for individual survivors and their communities. The World Health Organization and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees recommend conducting a desk review to summarize existing information, specific to the affected communities, that will support timely, culturally-attuned assessment and delivery of mental health and psychosocial support shortly after the onset of a disaster or humanitarian emergency. The desk review is one component of a comprehensive toolkit designed to inform and support humanitarian actors and their responders in the field. This commentary provides a case example of the development of a desk review that was used to inform personnel responding to the 2016 earthquake in Ecuador. The desk review process is described in addition to several innovations that were introduced to the process during this iteration. Strengths and limitations are discussed, as well as lessons learned and recommendations for future applications.

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Las personas con discapacidad intelectual y del desarrollo, particularmente las mujeres, son especialmente vulnerables a las situaciones de abuso sexual. El objetivo principal de esta revisión es examinar los estudios empíricos sobre la efectividad de programas de prevención del abuso sexual en esta población. Una búsqueda sistemática en PsycINFO, Web of Science y Psicodoc, identificó diez estudios publicados sobre el tema. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que la mayoría de los programas de prevención están basados en la adquisición de habilidades conductuales y que hay otros centrados en la educación sexual. Aunque existen datos que demuestran la efectividad, sobre todo, de los programas de habilidades, la mayoría de los estudios no ofrecen resultados robustos con los que juzgar la efectividad de estas intervenciones. Las conclusiones de la revisión se centran en la necesidad de aumentar la investigación sobre la población con discapacidad intelectual y del desarrollo, especialmente en mujeres y en el ámbito del abuso sexual.