Abstract
To the Editor
In recent years, Australia and New Zealand have witnessed an increased prevalence in highly destructive natural disasters. These events result in significant loss of life and reduced quality of life in their aftermath. Since the 2011 Brisbane floods, affected residents have experienced increased levels of common psychiatric disorders, sleeping difficulties, and Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Turner et al., 2012). These effects are substantial and can be long-lasting (Raphael and Meldrum, 1993).
A question arises: how do we ‘future-proof’ our community to be resilient following such devastation? To start, we need a clearer understanding of how different groups in the community experience and express different forms of psychiatric illness in the context of natural disaster.
Turner et al. (2012) recently highlighted the significant impact of the 2011 Brisbane floods on the physical and mental health of people living in affected areas. Controlling for property type and demographic variables including sex, made little difference to risk of self-reported distress and PTSD from experiencing the direct impact of the flooding. However, the paper did not report predictive effects of sex after control for exposure. Even if none were identified, differential reactions by men may still require attention, if community-wide resilience is to be optimised. Other research suggests that women have a small but significantly increased risk of PTSD from similar trauma exposure (Lee and Young, 2001). However, such differences in self-reported distress may reflect a differential emotional awareness or willingness to report distress, and men may also have increased risks of other trauma responses such as substance misuse (Danielson et al., 2009). Furthermore, men are less likely to seek help for psychiatric disorders, including PTSD (Mackenzie et al., 2012).
An opportunity exists, particularly for primary care mental health clinicians. If men appear for medical consultations after disaster exposure, opportunistic screening for any behavioural or emotional changes may increase the chance of them receiving appropriate treatment. This requires disaster first aid and intervention programs to be informed by greater understanding of gender differences in mental health problems in post-disaster situations.
We need to know more about how to prevent and treat psychiatric sequelae to trauma in men. Improving what we know about men’s mental health in post-disaster situations, might also provide further clarification about why large proportions of Australian men with mental disorders do not access mental health services post-disaster.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
The content of this letter is informed by a larger PhD research program being led by the first author and supervised by the second, third and fourth author together with Professor John Bushnell, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Wollongong.
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.