About this Research Topic
Planning of psychosocial care is essential to efficiently respond to and recover from mass casualty incidents, such as terrorist attacks, accidents and natural disasters. Such events are typically unpredictable, and often require urgent responses under chaotic circumstances. Consequently, it is challenging to organize an adapted psychosocial care response to identify and follow-up impacted individuals who need psychosocial care interventions. In order to prevent or treat posttraumatic health problems in affected populations, it is paramount to learn from good practices and the best available evidence. Still, research is scarce and international guidelines on post-disaster psychosocial care are largely based on expert opinions. Knowledge is required on psychosocial care responses across different settings and countries to strengthen our capacities to address the health needs of individuals impacted by mass casualty events.
The goal of this Research Topic is to generate and assemble knowledge on psychosocial care responses to terrorist attacks, large-scale accidents and other disasters across different settings, populations and countries. A large number of people may be impacted by such events, such as those directly exposed; professional or volunteer first responders; people living or working nearby; family members or friends of the survivors and the bereaved. It may thus be challenging to identify and reach the target population(s). International guidelines have been developed, yet little is known about how different countries actually meet psychosocial care needs after mass casualty incidents. Such knowledge is essential to strengthen the public health preparedness and response to disasters internationally and transnationally.
Given the scarcity of research on the best practices for post-disaster psychosocial care, it is important to accumulate experiences from practices and interventions that have been applied. We welcome manuscripts addressing the content, target populations and/or providers of acute and long-term psychosocial care after terrorist attacks, large-scale accidents or other types of disasters. Moreover, manuscripts that address how characteristics of the events and different health systems may influence the psychosocial care responses. The manuscripts can cover psychosocial care to civilians or professional first responders in general, or focus on groups that may be particularly at risk for uncovered healthcare needs, e.g. children, adolescents, migrants, and people with disabilities. We are interested in different types of manuscripts, including original research, systematic reviews, policy & practice reviews, community case studies, brief research reports, reviews, clinical trials and policy briefs.
The goal of this Research Topic is to generate and assemble knowledge on psychosocial care responses to terrorist attacks, large-scale accidents and other disasters across different settings, populations and countries. A large number of people may be impacted by such events, such as those directly exposed; professional or volunteer first responders; people living or working nearby; family members or friends of the survivors and the bereaved. It may thus be challenging to identify and reach the target population(s). International guidelines have been developed, yet little is known about how different countries actually meet psychosocial care needs after mass casualty incidents. Such knowledge is essential to strengthen the public health preparedness and response to disasters internationally and transnationally.
Given the scarcity of research on the best practices for post-disaster psychosocial care, it is important to accumulate experiences from practices and interventions that have been applied. We welcome manuscripts addressing the content, target populations and/or providers of acute and long-term psychosocial care after terrorist attacks, large-scale accidents or other types of disasters. Moreover, manuscripts that address how characteristics of the events and different health systems may influence the psychosocial care responses. The manuscripts can cover psychosocial care to civilians or professional first responders in general, or focus on groups that may be particularly at risk for uncovered healthcare needs, e.g. children, adolescents, migrants, and people with disabilities. We are interested in different types of manuscripts, including original research, systematic reviews, policy & practice reviews, community case studies, brief research reports, reviews, clinical trials and policy briefs.
Keywords: Psychosocial care, terrorist attacks, disasters, mass casualty incidents, posttraumatic stress disorder, posttraumatic health problems
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
