Mental Health Assistance to Families and Communities in the Aftermath of an Outbreak

Abstract

Families of patients affected by pandemic disease and their entire communities experience profound emotional responses during an outbreak and in its wake. Those responses can range from grief and bereavement to profound loss of sense of purpose and pervasive hopelessness and despair. Families of the deceased may require assistance with grief and loss, while families of survivors may have to deal with disability-induced burden, painful and sometimes slow recovery, economic burden, and the shroud of the stigma that surrounds the afflicted and their loved ones. Communities in the aftermath face a disruption of infrastructure and social fabric and, at a larger scale, deal with the same issues of loss and recovery as families do. The absence or disruption of mental health and psychosocial support systems and a dearth of well-trained mental health professionals in affected communities may amplify the risks of enduring psychological distress. Public mental health surveillance as a part of disease surveillance can help identify looming issues and allow for formulation of an adequate public mental health response. Public psychoeducation and integrated care that takes into account cultural and spiritual aspects of community trauma can help overcome many of the issues that families of the patient and entire communities are dealing with during the aftermath of an outbreak.