Analyze

I teach anthropology and environmental studies at Haveford College, just outside of Philly. Currently, I'm holed up in a cabin in the Adirondacks in upstate New York with several family members, including my spouse and 4 year old daughter and 3 dogs. I started working on disasters by accident, when one day in 2001 I was walking to class at NYU and saw the World Trade Center buildings on flames. I have known Kim for a few year and I contacted her to connect with folks around Covid-19 and its imacts.

I'm particularly intersted in issues of communal grief, mourning, and bereavement. Also, I'm interested in the religious response to Covid-19.

"Depression and anxiety disorders were pervasive. Many residents had regular nightmares of waking up in water. They talked about recurring “breakdowns” in which they became overcome with emotion and physically collapsed. A 2007 study showed that 20 percent of New Orleans residents were categorized as having a Katrina-related serious mental illness, and 19 percent showed signs of minimal to mild mental illness (Sastry and VanLandingham 2008; Thomas 2008).  "

"The stress-inducing factors that prevailed among New Orleans residents were multiple and layered, including physical, psychological, and social displacements around house and home, work, financial security, and family security. The loss of home and jobs and, in some cases, the cost of rebuilding produced huge financial worries for residents. "

"What I experienced was coming back to the devastation of the city. No grocery stores, no cell phone service, certainly no phone service, no regular phone service. We actually had to get other cell phones. You know, it was a ghost town. I think I, probably, maybe not now, but I was in shock, you know, because I couldn’t take in the enormity of it. I wondered knowing the politics of the city, and the state, and actually the federal government, how it was ever going to be fixed.  "

“Chronic disaster syndrome” thus refers in this analysis to the cluster of trauma-and posttrauma-related phenomena that are at once individual, social, and political and that are associated with disaster as simultaneously causative and experiential of a chronic condition of distress in relation to displacement.  "

"Not surprisingly, residents and those still trying to return to New Orleans are asking the question: Where did all the federal money go? Residents still living out of their trailers wonder why they could not get Road Home or FEMA funds and continue to wait to find out if their rental housing will be rebuilt.  "

The article is supported through the recollection of the past decade of research on this topic of mental health effects due to disasters. First, the article delves into the PTSD and MDD mental illness association with disasters and the background of theses disorders. The authors then utilize numerous epidemiological studies that have been developed and discussed on the matter over that last 190 years. Experiences of those that are dealing with mental illnesses are also utilized as supporting evidence of the effect disasters have on mental health conditions on those effected.

This was published by the International Atomic Energy Agency and is published as a part of the Radiological Assessment Reports Series.

This article is discussed and referenced in STS based courses and emergency response seminars and planning committees. The paper is also cited in a book Edited by Richard Hindmarsh and Rebecca Priestley entitles "The Fukushima Effect."

Though this is a very new area of study and expertise, Columbia University is very highly regarded. The public and other institutions respect this program and school alike. It shows much promise and innovation in the medical and healthcare fields. 

Paul Farmer cites this paper in some of his other studies and articles written after this. The article has also been cited in a book entitled "Social Medicine in the 21st Century" by Samuel Barrack. This article has also been cited in: 

https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/10612556/3585352.pdf;sequen…

http://opensample.info/blindness-survey-methods-response-from-sudan-stu…;

According to Wiley Online Library, this article has been cited by 5 other works, all related in terms of humanitarianism or sexual violence. The articles it has been cited in can be seen here: 

1.  Laura Jordan Jaffee, Disrupting global disability frameworks: settler-colonialism and the geopolitics of disability in Palestine/Israel, Disability & Society, 2016, 31, 1, 116CrossRef
2. JULIA KOWALSKI, Ordering dependence: Care, disorder, and kinship ideology in North Indian antiviolence counseling, American Ethnologist, 2016, 43, 1, 63Wiley Online Library
3. Rosanne Marrit Anholt, Understanding sexual violence in armed conflict: cutting ourselves with Occam’s razor, Journal of International Humanitarian Action, 2016, 1, 1CrossRef
4. Zoë H. Wool, Critical military studies, queer theory, and the possibilities of critique: the case of suicide and family caregiving in the US military, Critical Military Studies, 2015, 1, 1, 23CrossRef
5. Miriam Ticktin, Transnational Humanitarianism, Annual Review of Anthropology, 2014, 43, 1, 273

There were numerous people invested in this situation and effected by the repercussions of it. The main focus is on the citizens of Liberia. The film shows their account of what happened, in terms of the severe amount of deaths and deplorable conditions in which they lived in. There was a complete lack of health care and public health or awareness, as well as resources such as food and supplies. Citizens were at first not taking the situation as seriously as it should have been, not heeding the warnings from doctors, convinced the government was exaggerating. Yet, once the turmoil and panic of officials was displayed, citizens soon began to worry. There were issues and decisions made involving protecting themselves from the disease as well as their families. Those infected also faced many issues. There was a complete lack of resources for those separated from the population due to infection. There were scarce amounts of food, water, supplies and medical attention. Fear, death and disease spread fast throughout the population. Decisions about not only quarantine and families had to be made, but also decision of whether leaving the country was a good choice, as seen by the main family in the documentary. Other stakeholders include health care officials as well as government employees. There were many decisions made by them in terms of allocating resources, as well as informing citizens about the situation. 

Emergency response isn’t directly addressed in this article. Yet, conditions and forms of violence that are discussed in the article that emergency responders have been documented with facing, clearly effect the way they work and respond to calls. Though emergency response isn’t directly addressed, this article is very relevant to emergency responders since its implications can highly effect the work of EMS and other medical care providers.