Mental health on the frontlines: Disaster psychiatry perspectives from Odisha

Abstract

Disasters can have a profound impact on mental health, leading to stress, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, grief, substance abuse, and suicidality. These issues can persist for years, affecting 30%–60% of survivors, and risk and resilience depend on factors such as socioeconomic status, cultural background, health, trauma exposure, age, sex, and community support. Early interventions and long-term interventions, such as skills building, communal practices, cooperative livelihood programs, clinical therapies, and addressing health-care disparities, can help in recovery. Trauma can lead to neurobiological changes, and culturally sensitive mental health care is essential. Climate change accelerates extreme events, and disaster response systems must integrate such care to enhance resilience and mitigate trauma to disrupted communities such as Odisha and broadly affected populations worldwide.