To substantiate psychological symptoms following humidifier disinfectant (HD) disasters, counseling records of 26 victims and 92 family members of victims (45 were bereaved) were analyzed retrospectively. Among the victims, 34.6% had Clinical Global Impression-Severity scores of over 4, which meant they were moderately ill. While anxiety/fear and depression with respiratory symptoms were frequently observed in victims and family members, chronic psychological distress such as alcohol/smoking abuse and insomnia was relatively high in bereaved family members. In conclusion, it is important to provide mental health support for victims and their families, focusing on the characteristic symptoms of each group as well as monetary compensation.

Background: This study aims to test the effectiveness of a camp program and to analyze the factors related to stress relief. To this end, the present study conducted prospective research for six months on the change of stress, depression, and the level of post-traumatic stress among the firefighters who participated in the camp program. Methods: The perceived stress (PSS-K), stress by the different portion (GARS), post-traumatic stress symptoms (IES-R) and depression (BDI-II) were evaluated at five sessions over the span of six months, and the change of each measure was analyzed. Those five sessions were before the camp, right after the camp and a month, three months and six months after the camp. Moreover, this study assessed characteristics of sociodemographic, firefighting task and mental health that are related to the level of stress at six months after the camp. Results: Compared with before the camp, the level of depression was significantly lower right after the camp. However, the level did not have significant difference after a month period. At one month after the camp, the level of stress was significantly lower than before the camp, and was maintained after six months. The predictive factors of the degree of stress relief after the camp were high job stress and low disease stress. Conclusions: This study has found that the stress relief from the camp continued until six months after the camp, and the stress-relieving effect through the camp was substantial for those with higher job stress and lower disease stress.

Objective It is necessary to develop new guidelines to delineate the best ways of providing psychosocial care to ensure mental health following a disaster. Methods This study applied the scoping review method as a means of establishing evidence-based guidelines for disaster mental health services. A total of 440 literatures were selected through a scoping review of 20,864 documents. Twenty-three recognized experts were invited to participate in the survey and a two-round online Delphi survey was conducted. Results The concordance rate in the Delphi Round 1 was 95.1%. Six items were excluded and new items were formulated with experts’ suggestions. A total of 23 statements were slightly modified to clarify their meaning. In the Delphi Round 2, all items were met with consensus. The three items with the highest consensus among the experts were related to the protection of personal information and privacy. The item with the lowest consensus among experts was related to debriefing. Other items were related to establishing mental health support centers and suicide prevention activities. Conclusion 140 items were developed through scoping reviews based on evidence-based methodology. These items were used to describe the disaster mental health support identified in Delphi. The guideline will provide a foundation for effective preparation and response in disaster situations.

Disaster mental health crisis assistance refers to a series of activities to promote psychosocial recovery of disaster survivors and the community affected by a disaster. Crisis assistance activities are performed at a team level, not at an individual level, and thus it is important to foster trained assistance teams in the community. Yet expert consensus regarding how to cultivate and provide such team training is lacking. The purpose of this study was to develop management guidelines for a Disaster Mental Health Crisis Assistance Team (DMH-CAT) using a Delphi process. In this study, an expert panel was conducted to develop initial items for management guidelines, subsequent to which two structured online surveys were administered to disaster mental health experts who had not participated in the initial item development. Through this process, 84 guidelines across 13 domains were derived. The subsections in the guideline included definition of terms, mission and goals, composition, roles of the team, team leader, and team members in preparation and acute disaster phases, respectively, assessment of team competency and operational systems, education and training, team care and prevention of burnout, and ethics. Overall the level of expert consensus for the final items was high, with a consensus mean of 8.20 on a scale of 1 to 9. The management guidelines of the DMH-CAT developed in this study are composed of items describing general principles that are applicable to various forms of the DMH-CAT.

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