Child Behavior Toolbox - Natural Disaster Strategies

1. Catastrophic events such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, fires or floods are frightening for everyone. It is important to acknowledge the frightening parts of the disaster when discussing it with family members. Falsely minimizing the danger will not end their concerns. 2. Earthquakes are different from other natural disasters in that they can produce intense aftershocks. There is no clearly defined end to the quake and the continued tremors may increase psychological distress. 3. Earthquakes, unlike any other natural disaster occur without warning. This limits or severely restricts an individual's opportunity to make psychological adjustments that can assist in his coping. This lack of predictability significantly lessens a person's feelings of control. 4. Survivors often have to cope with extremely stressful events and on-going reminders of what has happened in the form of sounds of explosions, rumbling of aftershocks, and toxic fumes including smoke, soot and rubber. There may also have been moderate to high death tolls of people around them, including relatives and neighbours. Along with this comes a high risk of contagious diseases depending upon severity of the earthquake. 5. Parents and other care givers should continually remind children that they are there to protect them. Saying things like "We are all in this together" can be helpful. 6. Parents and other caregivers need to be prepared to repeat themselves over and over again to ensure that everyone gets the information they need and that they feel your reassurance. 7. Children will most often take their cues from parents and other adults as to how to respond. They need to be careful about what they say and how they say it. Try to remain as calm as possible. 8. Parents need to look after their own personal needs. The better they look after you own needs the more they can look after those of your family. Make contact with other supportive adults. Avoid using drugs or alcohol as a way of coping. Take brief timeouts where and when ever possible. 9. Try to maintain as many of your normal routines as possible. Incorporate recreational activities to help stabilize your situation. This is particularly important with younger children. 10. Encourage family members to talk about feelings and perceptions of the event. At the same time, do not put individuals in a situation where they feel they have to talk. 11. Family members may have lost something as a result of the disaster. Acknowledge their feeling of loss and respect their need to go through a period of grieving. 12. If a child or adolescent is in a temporary residence, provide him with something personal that is a reminder of home. 13. Obtaining support from family, friends, classmates, and teachers needs to be a priority. Having children phone extended family members or getting together with his peers are but two examples. 14. Children and youths may display a number of signs in response to an extremely stressful situation. These may include one or more of the following: irritability, aggressiveness, clinginess, nightmares, school avoidance, poor concentration, and withdrawal from activities and friends. These are all normal reactions and need to be kept in perspective. In most cases they will decrease significantly with time. If, after several months they continue, professional assistance may be necessary. 15. Realize that it is quite normal for children and adolescents to want to discuss their feelings and perception of the event(s) many times. This is completely normal and is a way that they show that they are trying to resolve their feelings around the event. Accept this and be patient with them. 16. Many children and adolescents will adapt on their own over time providing they are living in a supportive home. These children and adolescents, as an example, respond well to offers of assistance from outside sources. Time is indeed a healer for some, providing no pre-existing emotional problems existed. 17. Limit how much TV family members watch, particularly of the news events surrounding the event. Watching the event(s) on TV over and over again may have the effect of magnifying the severity of the incident, just causing extra stress. Actively encourage other activities such as reading, spending time with friends, playing board games, and getting exercise. 18. Discuss what is being done to increase safety in your local community. Information focused on safety will be important. For example, the Red Cross may be distributing food and providing shelter while the different levels of government are providing money to help build new homes. 19. As part of coping with a natural disaster, encourage the individual/family to take advantage of the outside resources that are available to them. This may have a therapeutic effect in reinforcing the notion that other people care about the situation and wish to help.