Haiti earthquake 2010: Psychosocial impacts

Abstract

As we have previously stated, “the 2010 Haiti earthquake provides a potent example of the rare catastrophic event where all major risk factors for psychological distress and impairment are prominent and compounding,” (Shultz et al., 2011). In this case example, we have illustrated the links between the descriptors of the event: (1) disaster type, (2) severity, (3) duration, (4) mortality, and (5) scope in relation to the psychological impact.We have attempted to describe how the psychological and physical consequences interplay and synergize in a seismic event of such impact severity marked by quantum loss of life, obliteration of infrastructure, and barbarous hardship in the aftermath. In fact, our detailed assessment of this event became the basis for introducing “trauma signature analysis” (TSIG) to the field (Shultz et al., 2011).