Healthy State of Mind to Cope with an Emergency

October 10 is World Mental Health Day

Mental health is as important as physical health to your overall well-being. Taking care of both your physical and mental health will help you protect yourself and your family for an emergency.

What is mental health?

Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It can affect how we think, feel, relate to others, and plays a role in how we handle stress and make healthy choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life.

Emergencies or natural disasters can disrupt our mental health. It’s important to learn how to manage traumatic events that happen during and after an emergency or natural disaster.

A traumatic event is an event, or series of events, that causes moderate to severe stress reactions. They include natural disasters, loss of a loved one, acts of violence (assault, abuse, terrorist attacks, and mass shootings), or car crashes and other types of accidents.

Experiences such as these can cause feelings of stress, fear, anxiety and depression, helplessness, sadness, anger, and other emotions and reactions. These emotions are normal to experience at the onset of a traumatic event, but if they last too long, it can be problematic.(1)

Preparing to deal with the stress and challenges of an emergency is part of personal health preparedness. Knowing how to cope with feelings in healthy ways can help you stay calm, think clearly, and respond quickly during emergencies.

Prep Your Mental Health for an Emergency

Traumatic events and most emergencies are beyond your control. You can lessen their impact on your health and safety by taking steps now to improve your preparedness, develop coping skills, and make social connections. These steps can help you respond to and recover from stressful situations, including emergencies.

Ways of preparing your mental health include:

  • Identifying trusted sources of information, including CDC and your state and local health departments, so you can stay informed during an emergency. When you feel that you are missing important information, you may become stressed or anxious.
  • Learning new and refreshing old practical skills can help you build confidence and better respond in a crisis.
  • Taking care of your body. Eat healthy, exercise regularly, get plenty of sleep, get needed vaccinations (flu and COVID-19), and avoid alcohol, tobacco, and substance use.(2)
  • Taking breaks from watching, reading, or listening to news stories, including social media.
  • Connecting with others. It’s important to have strong, healthy relationships. It is also good to have different types of connections.(3) Get involved in your community by helping a neighbor prepare for emergencies or volunteering with an organization active in disaster relief.
  • Making time to unwind. Try to do other activities that you enjoy.(2)

Know the Signs of Distress

It is natural to feel stress, anxiety, grief, and worry during and after a disaster. Everyone copes differently to stressful situations and your feelings can change over time. Stress can cause the following(4):

  • Feelings of fear, anger, sadness, worry, numbness, or frustration
  • Changes in appetite, energy, desires, and interests
  • Difficulty concentrating and making decisions
  • Difficulty sleeping or nightmares
  • Physical reactions, such as headaches, body pains, stomach problems, and skin rashes
  • Worsening of chronic health problems
  • Worsening of mental health conditions
  • Increased use of tobacco, alcohol, and other substances

Stress reactions after a traumatic event are very common and may resolve after a few weeks. Know how and where to get professional help if these reactions last longer and interfere with your everyday life.

Care for yourself

Coping skills and self-care activities can help you remain calm in stressful situations.

Making time for self-care and practicing coping skills can help ground you before, during, or after an emergency and help you become more resilient in your everyday life. Taking care of yourself can also better equip you to take care of others.

The most effective self-care and coping skills are those you can practice anywhere at any time. Find a small way each day to care for yourself. Ways to do that include:

  • Practicing gratitude, which means being thankful for the good things in your life.(3) Practicing gratitude can help you keep things in perspective and appreciate moments of positive emotion.
  • Staying connected with friends and family. Talking with people you trust about your feelings and concerns can relieve stress.
  • Helping others. Caring for others in your community can also help you feel a sense of purpose, mindfulness, and gratitude.
  • Practicing relaxation techniques like meditation and deep breathing exercises. Relaxation techniques can help slow your breathing, lower blood pressure, and reduce muscle tension and stress.

The How Right Now campaign helps people cope with the effects of a natural disaster or emergency, such as COVID-19 . Visit the campaign website to find information and resources you can use to help yourself and others cope with stress, grief, and loss.

If you are struggling to cope, there are many ways to get help. Call your healthcare provider if stress gets in the way of your daily activities.(2)

If you are in crisis, get immediate help:

References

  1. https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/dealing-with-stress/index.html
  2. https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/stress-coping/cope-with-stress/index.html
  3. https://medlineplus.gov/howtoimprovementalhealth.html
  4. https://emergency.cdc.gov/coping/selfcare.asp

Resources

Thanks in advance for your questions and comments on this Public Health Matters post. Please note that the CDC does not give personal medical advice. If you are concerned you have a disease or condition, talk to your doctor.

Have a question for CDC? CDC-INFO (http://www.cdc.gov/cdc-info/index.html) offers live agents by phone and email to help you find the latest, reliable, and science-based health information on more than 750 health topics.

 

Protecting Our Future: Emergency Preparedness and Children’s Mental Health

Sad boy sitting against a brick wall with his face hidden

Among the many lessons learned during the 2017 Hurricane season, we recognized that addressing children’s mental and behavioral health needs is a major concern in hurricane-affected areas.

CDC’s At Risk Task Force (ARTF) was established in 2017 to ensure identification and prioritization of the mental and physical health needs of at-risk populations, including children. ARTF’s first Emergency Operations Center (EOC) activation was on Aug. 31, 2017, in response to Hurricane Harvey, the first of three consecutive hurricanes to hit the United States and its territories in a five-week period. ARTF’s mission was to address the needs of at-risk populations in affected areas throughout the response and recovery phases.

Early in the response, it became clear that the emotional impact of the storms and the mental health needs of people, particularly children, affected were a critical area of focus. ARTF worked closely with federal and non-government agencies to address these needs so that children and families had the best chance for recovery.

October 10 is World Mental Health Day. The theme this year is Young People and Mental Health in a Changing World. In light of this, we want to share our experiences to inform mental health interventions and improve outcomes for children after public health emergencies and natural disasters. First, let’s talk about what makes children more vulnerable in emergencies.

Why are children more vulnerable in emergencies?

Mental stress from a disaster can be harder on children. Children are more vulnerable in emergencies: Because they breathe in more air for their size than adults, children absorb harmful materials from the air more readily. Because they spend more time outside, are lower to the ground, and put their hands in their mouths more often than do adults. Because they may not be able to communicate their symptoms or feelings. Because they need medicines, and specifically designed equipment for emergency situations that are different from adults.Children are more vulnerable in emergencies because of their physical, developmental, behavioral, and emotional differences from adults. Children may have difficulty or may not be able to communicate symptoms or feelings. They may understand less about the situation and feel less able to control the events around them.

The aftermath of an emergency or disaster is also difficult for children because they have less experience coping with difficult situations.

The emotional impact of an emergency depends on a child’s characteristics and experiences, the social and economic circumstances of the family and their community, and the availability of local resources. Other factors may influence the emotional impact on children, causing them to be more vulnerable in emergencies. These include children with mental, behavioral, or developmental disorders. Children who have experienced trauma in the past may also have more difficulty coping with a disaster.  

What does the At Risk Task Force do for children’s mental health during a hurricane response?

During the 2017 hurricane season, the ARTF collaborated with federal and non-government partners to monitor behavioral health in affected areas and disseminate key messages and coping resources for children in schools and vulnerable populations in other contexts. ARTF coordinated a webinar for primary care physicians that focused on identification of common adjustment difficulties in children, provided strategies to promote effective coping skills in children and their parents, and explained the importance of self-care for professionals. The webinar was attended by more than 300 clinicians and other health care providers on Oct 26, 2017.

Public health professionals also play an important role in addressing short-term and enduring mental health needs of the population. Timely and accurate mental and behavioral health surveillance data, that includes specific information on children, could inform intervention efforts to improve developmental outcomes for children in the longer-term aftermath of disasters. It is important that mental health surveillance be incorporated into preparedness planning so that surveillance systems can be established or leveraged immediately when emergency response begins.

What are next steps for CDC?

Children’s mental health needs are a prominent concern in hurricane-Recommendations to help children cope during and after an emergency: • Share age-appropriate information • Encourage children to ask questions • Limit media exposure • Return to a routine • Reunite children with caregivers as soon as possibleaffected areas. There is still a gap in real-time information on mental health needs to inform intervention efforts and improve child outcomes. CDC is working internally to enhance efforts to monitor health impacts during and after natural disasters, including integrating mental health into standard data collection.

CDC is also working with partners to integrate children’s mental health in preparedness planning. Following the 2017 hurricane season, CDC collaborated with the American Academy of Pediatrics to develop an activity book for children and families, Coping after a Disaster, that focuses on feelings children might have after a disaster and coping strategies that may help. This book is part of a series that follows Ready Wrigley, a dog who helps her family prepare for emergencies and their impacts.

CDC is now partnering with the National Hazard Center to develop mental and behavioral health training modules for researchers conducting field research immediately following an extreme event, such as a hurricane. These free, online trainings will provide background information on mental health in the context of disasters, as well as a list of mental health assessment tools used following a disaster for various vulnerable populations (e.g., children, older adults). The trainings and associated resources will address current research gaps in mental health, help to organize research in this area, and share best practices with researchers.

On Sept. 12, 2018, CDC activated the EOC to respond to Hurricane Florence, which made landfall off the coast of North Carolina on Sept. 13. The ARTF was quickly activated to address the needs of vulnerable populations. As the storm decreased in intensity, North Carolina began reporting increased emergency department visits related to stress and anxiety. Mental health concerns in children, similar to 2017, are expected to remain a prominent focus throughout the response and recovery phases. The ARTF continues to monitor the situation and support the mental and behavioral health needs of children and vulnerable populations in affected areas.

Additional Resources: