RESEARCH ARTICLE


The Significance of Community Support for Survivors of a Natural Disaster



Marian S. Harris1, *, Ganita Musa2, Ryan Brookman3
1 University of Washington Tacoma Social Work and Criminal Justice Program 1900 Commerce Street Tacoma, WA 98402-3100, USA
2 University of Washington Tacoma & Child & Family Therapist Southwest Youth and Family Services 4555 Delridge Way SW Seattle, WA 98106, USA
3 University of Washington Tacoma School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences 1900 Commerce Street Tacoma, WA 98402-3100, USA

Article Information


Identifiers and Pagination:

Year: 2016
Volume: 8
First Page: 37
Last Page: 46
Publisher Id: TOFAMSJ-8-37
DOI: 10.2174/1874922401608010037

Article History:

Received Date: 28/10/2016
Revision Received Date: 28/11/2016
Acceptance Date: 03/12/2016
Electronic publication date: 30/12/2016
Collection year: 2016

© Harris et al.; Licensee Bentham Open

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the University of Washington Tacoma Social Work and Criminal Justice Program 1900 Commerce Street Tacoma, WA 98402-3100, USA; Tel: (253) 692-4554; Fax: (253) 692-5825; E-mail: mh24@uw.edu


Abstract

This community based participatory research study was conducted in Oso, WA. Ten survivors of the 2014 mudslide participated in a focus group and discussed their experiences before and after this natural disaster. Findings revealed that the majority of participants had feelings of confusion/redundancy and were still processing feelings of grief and loss at the time of the focus group. Another finding was the strong sense of community expressed by all participants and the high level of support participants provided to each other during and after the mudslide. The study also highlighted the need for mental health resources to be part of any disaster relief plan because survivors need emotional support. Finally, findings demonstrated the importance of outside relief organizations seeking input from community members prior to implementing disaster relief; findings highlighted the significance of utilizing the high level of knowledge regarding area landslides expressed by members of the Oso community.

Keywords: Community, Sense of community, Disaster relief, Physical community, Mental health, Social community, Mudslide, Community support, Oso, WA.