Mental health risks in the local workforce engaged in disaster relief and reconstruction

Abstract

To build a sustainable workforce for long-term disaster relief and reconstruction, more effort must be made to promote local relief workers' mental health. We conducted 25 semistructured interviews with local relief officials 10 months after the 2008 earthquake in China to investigate the stress and coping experiences in their personal lives as survivors. We conducted thematic analysis of interview transcripts. Traumatic bereavement and grief, housing and financial difficulties, and work-family conflict were the three main sources of stress in the respondents' personal lives. The coping themes were finding meaning and purpose in life through relief work, colleagues' support and understanding, suppression or avoidance of grief, appreciation for life, hardiness, optimism, letting nature take its course, and making up for loss. We suggest that relief work has a double-edged-sword effect on workers' coping abilities. We discuss the implications of this effect for work-life balance measures and trauma and grief counseling services.