ELECTIVE: INTRODUCTION TO
MENTAL HEALTH AND PSYCHO-
SOCIAL SUPPORT FOR DISASTER
PREPAREDNESS
Chapter 3: Early Warning Signs
(Red Flags of Mental Health Challenges)
 Early Warning Signs
o Sudden, Unexplained Mood Changes
 Prolonged and unexplained
 In depression: present for 14 days
(mahaba na)
 Though kahit mas maikili
dito, pwedeng may depression
pa rin so it’s better to
consult/refer professionals
 Bipolar
o Unable to Handle Minor Problems
and Daily Activities
 Low productivity
 Simple things then can be hard in
these times
 Sign of disorder” disfunction and
disability to do daily activities
o Loss of Interest in Hobbies and
Social Withdrawal
 Ex. Giving away priced
possessions (KPOP albums)
o Excessive Use of Drugs or Alcohol
 Substance Abuse
o Unexplained Physical Changes
 Eating disorders
 Sleeping patterns
o Loss of Confidence
 Feeling of hopelessness and
worthlessness
o Strange or Overelaborate Ideas
 Thoughts that are too fictional
 Can’t focus on one idea
 Thoughts are withdrawn from
reality
 Delusions – Beliefs; Delusion of
persecution refers to one’s belief
that someone is out there to kill
them; Another example is
believing that you’re a superhero
 Hallucinations – You hear
something pero wala naman
talaga; May nakikita pero wala
naman talaga; A person suddenly
hears something, and that voice
becomes stronger
o Unorganized Thinking
 You cannot focus
 Trouble in presenting thoughts in a
clear way
 Flight of ideas
o False Beliefs, Delusions, or
Hallucinations
 Different to Philippines, like their
cultural beliefs
 Ex. Seeing the dead, the concept of
sapi (Filipino context)
o Talk About Suicide
 According to research: Suicide
should be talked about more to
avoid it and to have awareness.
 Irrational Beliefs
o Cognitive Distortions –
distorted/irrational thoughts leading to
maladaptive behaviors
 All or nothing thinking –
sometimes called black and white
thinking
 If I’m not perfect, I have
failed
 Either I do it right or not at all
 Mental Filter
 Only paying attention to
certain types of evidence
 Noticing our failures but not
seeing our successes
 Over-generalizing
 Seeing a pattern based upon a
single event, or being overly
broad in the conclusions we
draw
 Disqualifying the positive
 Discounting the good things
that have happened or that
you have done for some
reason or another
 That doesn’t count
  Jumping to Conclusions
 Mind reading – imagining
we know what others are
thinking
 Fortune telling – predicting
the future
 Emotional Reasoning
 Assuming that because we
feel a certain way what we
think must be true
o Consequences of Mental Health
 I feel embarrassed so I must
Problems
be an idiot
 Absenteeism
 Magnification (catastrophizing)
 Increase in overall sickness
and minimization
 Attitude and Behavior
 Blowing things out of
 Loss of motivation and
proportion (catastrophizing)
commitment
or inappropriately shrinking
 Burnout
something to make it seem
 Staff working increasingly
less important
long hours but for diminishing
 Should, must
returns
 Using critical words like
 Poor timekeeping
should, must, or ought can
 Labor turnover – resigning
make us feel guilty, or like we
 Relationships At Work
have already failed
 Tension and conflicts between
 If we apply should to other
colleagues
people, the result is often
 Poor relationships with clients
frustration
 Job Dissatisfaction
 Labelling
 Increase in disciplinary
 Assigning labels to ourselves
problems
or other people
 Work Performance
 I’m a loser, I’m completely
 Reduction in productivity and
useless, They’re such an idiot
output
 Personalization
 Increase in error rates
 This is my fault
 Poor decision making
 Blaming yourself or taking
 Accidents
responsibility for something
 Distractibility and poor
that wasn’t completely your
judgement
fault
 Increased amount of accidents
 Conversely, blaming other
 Violence in the workplace
people for something that was
 Human errors caused by
your fault
unresolved mental health
o The Cognitive-Behavioral Model
illness and personal problems
(Aaron Beck)
 Importance of Referral
 Our thoughts are influenced one’s
o Referral for counselling should be
behavior which in turn affects
emotions and affects the situation considered when you believe a friend’s
problems go beyond your own control
 and expertise, or when you feel
uncomfortable
o May be made either because of the way
a person’s problems
 Mental Health Team
o Medical doctor, psychologist, nurses,
social-worker, or any other
appropriately trained or qualified
person with specific skills relevant to
the provision of mental health services
o Mental Health Service Provider
 Refers to an entity of individual
providing mental health services,
whether private or public,
including, but not limited to, MH
professionals and workers, social
workers and counselors, peer
counselors, informal community
caregivers, MH advocates and
their organizations, personal
ombudsmen, and persons or
entities offering nonmedical
alternative therapies
o Mental Health Worker
 Trained person, volunteer, or
advocate engaged in MH
promotion, providing support
services under the supervision of a
mental health professional
o Service User
 Refers to the person with lived
experience of any mental health
condition including person who
require, or undergoing psychiatric,
neurologic, or psychosocial care
Chapter 4: Crisis and Disaster
 Definition and Types
o Crisis
 Destruction that physically affects
a system
 An abnormal situation which
presents a high risk to business and
may trigger rapid policy changes,
since it draws public and media
attention and threatens public trust
 A situation faced by an individual,
group, or organization which they
are unable to cope with by the use
of normal routine procedures and
in which stress is created by
sudden change
 Perception of experiencing of an
event or situation as an intolerable
difficulty that exceeds the person’s
current resources and coping
mechanisms
 Can be individualized
 Stressful event or perceived threat
+ lack of efficient coping skills,
resulting in emotional unbalance
 Limited in time: 1-6 weeks
 Subject asks for help
 Subject is more compliant
 Stages of Coping In Crisis
 Stage 1: Immediate
Response (Astonishment,
denial)
 Stage 2: Emotion reactions
(anxiety, anger, regression,
guilt, depression)
 Stage 3: Resolution
(acceptance, planning the
future)
 Types of Crisis
 Maturational Crisis
 Period in life which
entails changes in social
roles, biological and
social pressures
 Adolescence, marriage,
birth of a child,
retirement
 Ex. Adolescence:
originality, hormonal
balance
 Situation Crisis
 Specific external event
that disrupts the internal
psychological balance of
the individual
 Death of spouse
 Divorce/illness
  Accidental  Create a collective need that
pregnancy overwhelms local resources
 Childbirth  Crisis can be caused by disaster
 Sexual dysfunction  Types
 Experience of loss  Man-made
 Issues concerning change  Terrorisms, War
(transition, marriage,  Natural
child birth)  Earthquake
 Interpersonal issues  Effects of Disaster to People
(family conflicts)  General
 Environmental factors  Cognitive
(pollution)  Distractibility
 Catastrophic Crisis (Social)  Declining
 Accidental, unusual, performance
unexpected  Overthinking
 Fire, earthquake, flood,  Recurrent intrusive
kidnapping, nuclear thoughts
accidents  Memory loss
 Causes severe stress  Reduced attention
 Requiring maximal span
coping strategies and  Calculation
abilities difficulties
o Disaster  Confusion
 Occurs as a result of a combination  Behavioral
of hazards, vulnerabilities and a  Clinging, isolation
lack of measures, here using  PTSD
special measures for planning,  Thrill seeking
coordinating, and utilizing behaviors
appropriate resources will  Insomnia\
minimize the adverse impact of  Excessive sleeping
disasters  Change in eating
 Sudden unforeseen events in habits
natural technological or social  Ritualistic Behavior
causes that lead to destruction,  Unwillingness to
loss, and damage leave the scene
 Complex global problem  Physical
 Inevitable truth of our life  Insomnia
 Disrupts mental health and well-  Losing Appetite
being  Fatigue
 Economic and social development  Profuse sweating
throughout the world is frequently  Dizziness
interrupted by natural disasters  Affective
 United National International  Depression
Strategy for Disaster Reduction  Anxiety
 Natural or human-caused  Numbness
occurrence that causes human  Guilt
suffering  Global pessimism
  Guild, shame, fear
 Intolerance of fear
response
 Overwhelm
 Psychological Illness which
may develop
 Despair and shock
 Traumatic experience
disrupts the
fully0funtoning life of
the victims and brings
loss for individuals,  Depression
families, and  At least 2 weeks
communities  Sadness, low mood,
 Emotional instability, and loss of interest in
stress reactions, anxiety, their usual activities
trauma, and other  Causes clinically
psychological symptoms significant distress or
 May have a massive impairment in social,
impact on the concerned occupational or other
individual and also on important areas of
communities functioning
 Anxiety
 Excessive anxiety
and worry about a
variety of topics,
events, or activities
 At least 6months
 Very challenging to
control
 Accompanied by at
least 3 physical or
cognitive symptoms
 Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder
 Psychiatric disorder
involving extreme
distress and
disruption of daily
living that happens
in relation to
exposure of a
traumatic event