Research News

Supervised by Dr. M. Mahmudur Rahman

Abstract

Cyclone is one of the major natural disasters in Bangladesh. The consequences of the devastation of cyclone, total area destroyed and may place victims’ any risk for a range of negative outcomes. Like environment, human’s mental health was also impaired by traumatic shock and loss. Disaster-related mental health problems may include acute stress disorder (ASD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, panic, complicated bereavement, anger, general psychological distress and arrest or regression of childhood developmental progression (National Institute of Mental Health, 2002; North, 2003). Therefore, it is necessary to take care of the victims’ mental health by providing psychological support as v^ell as the support of basic need, physical treatment, economical also. For treating psychological problems, cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is one of the mostly used psychotherapeutic interventions. In Bangladesh, only clinical psychologists practice this intervention method integrated with other supportive psychotherapeutic techniques. But there was no evidence of the effectiveness of clinical psychological services for disaster victims in Bangladesh. Hence the present study was carried out to assess the efficacy of clinical psychological services for the recovery of the mental health of the cyclone Sidr victims. The specific objectives were, I. to assess the mental health problems of the cyclone Sidr victims, II. to explore the functional impairments of the cyclone Sidr victims, ni. to see the effectiveness of clinical psychological services in reducing psychological problems and increase the functioning level of cyclone victims, IV. to propose a guideline for clinical psychological services for the cyclone victims. The present study was followed by a pre-post outcome research design to assess the mental health problems and the fiinctional level (physiological, emotional, cognitive, behavioral, social, occupational and sexual) of the victims as well as observable features and comments by following one month psychological treatment phase. The measures used in the study were in-depth interview. Anxiety Scale (Deeba and Begum, 2004), Depression Scale (Uddin and Rahman, 2005), the Bengali version of General Health Questionnaire (translated by, Ilyus and Aeyasha, 2001), the 16 point Subjective Rating Scale, level of functioning and observation. Purposive sampling technique was used for sample selection. 20 victims were selected from a severely affected village by applying a psychometric scale, the Self Report Questionnaire (SRQ-20). Abstract Cyclone is one of the major natural disasters in Bangladesh. The consequences of the devastation of cyclone, total area destroyed and may place victims’ any risk for a range of negative outcomes. Like environment, human’s mental health was also impaired by traumatic shock and loss. Disaster-related mental health problems may include acute stress disorder (ASD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, panic, complicated bereavement, anger, general psychological distress and arrest or regression of childhood developmental progression (National Institute of Mental Health, 2002; North, 2003). Therefore, it is necessary to take care of the victims’ mental health by providing psychological support as v^ell as the support of basic need, physical treatment, economical also. For treating psychological problems, cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is one of the mostly used psychotherapeutic interventions. In Bangladesh, only clinical psychologists practice this intervention method integrated with other supportive psychotherapeutic techniques. But there was no evidence of the effectiveness of clinical psychological services for disaster victims in Bangladesh. Hence the present study was carried out to assess the efficacy of clinical psychological services for the recovery of the mental health of the cyclone Sidr victims. The specific objectives were, I. to assess the mental health problems of the cyclone Sidr victims, II. to explore the functional impairments of the cyclone Sidr victims, ni. to see the effectiveness of clinical psychological services in reducing psychological problems and increase the functioning level of cyclone victims, IV. to propose a guideline for clinical psychological services for the cyclone victims. The present study was followed by a pre-post outcome research design to assess the mental health problems and the fiinctional level (physiological, emotional, cognitive, behavioral, social, occupational and sexual) of the victims as well as observable features and comments by following one month psychological treatment phase. The measures used in the study were in-depth interview. Anxiety Scale (Deeba and Begum, 2004), Depression Scale (Uddin and Rahman, 2005), the Bengali version of General Health Questionnaire (translated by, Ilyus and Aeyasha, 2001), the 16 point Subjective Rating Scale, level of functioning and observation. Purposive sampling technique was used for sample selection. 20 victims were selected from a severely affected village by applying a psychometric scale, the Self Report Questionnaire (SRQ-20).