PhD in Social Work
Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Texas A&M University, 1992. Currently Associate Professor of Psychology & Counseling at the University of Central Arkansas and training director of the Mental Health Counseling masters program.
Disasters are of significant encounters for human societies worldwide and can have devastating social, medical, and public health consequences
People’s life after natural events and disasters has not been studied sufficiently
Furthermore, research indicates that some people experience a disaster posttraumatic growth in terms of greater appreciation of life, deeper meaningfulness, closer relationships, and deeper religious faith; however, these studies do not describe the process of moving from disaster period to posttraumatic growth
On the other hand, there is currently no comprehensive study on the concerns of life after disasters in Iran. Previous works have mainly focused on post-disaster mental health interventions
Of 27 participants of the study, including survivors of the earthquake-stricken areas and the qualified people with relevant scientific expertise, the mean age was 41 years. 21 of participants were men, three were single, and the literacy level ranged from illiterate to postgraduate qualifications. Quotations mentioned in this article are all translated from Persian into English by the researcher (FA). Accuracy of translations was independently checked by another author (PSF).
Findings indicated that “social uncertainty and confusion” was the main concern of people after disaster, a matter which was directly and indirectly hidden in most of study codes. People reported that they lived with significant uncertainty about the future and that they experienced a significant decline in perceived ability to recover and in motivation. One of participants explained the situation as follows:
“…
This study also identified six other main concepts related to participants’ main concerns: social vulnerability, lack of comprehensive rehabilitation plan, ignorance of local social capital, waste of assets, and psychological problems. These main categories and their subcategories are explained below:
Findings showed that disasters are associated with everyday life of people. The severity of damages and their consequences depend on various factors such as socioeconomic vulnerability of people. Experiences and perceptions of the participants indicated that natural events are not the only obstacles impeding their return to normal life and different direct and indirect factors affect the speed and quality of this process. Three emerged subcategories about social vulnerabilities were as follows: 1) inefficiency of local non-governmental
According to the results, inefficiency of non-governmental social institutions had left the government alone with the responsibility of restoration, and caused various problems in returning to normal life. Inefficiency of institutions such as councils and associations caused challenges for people in providing assistance and communicating with governmental institutions. From the viewpoint of participants, intermediary institutions could facilitate the rescue works, make them more goal-oriented, and prevent from lots of financial waste. It is noteworthy that competency of intermediary institutions is also an important factor. If people do not trust them or if they are incompetent, then their effectiveness is lost. One of the participants explained the situation as:
Lack of public awareness was another subcategory which caused problems for people at disaster time and even during the process of getting back to normal life. Most of the participants talked about lack of in advance knowledge and skills to respond to and recover from a disaster; they also believed that the current public education was not effective enough and made them unable to play any active role. A participant noted the issue as:
Pre-earthquake social problems significantly increase vulnerability and hinder people’s return to normal life in a timely fashion. Most of participants believed that factors such as poverty, inequality, and unemployment were factors which increased their social vulnerability and created problems in returning back to normal life in an efficient manner:
Participants believed that people who had physical, social and, personal vulnerabilities suffered the most losses:
Findings showed that there were times of progress and yet times of frustration in the process of helping people to get back to normal life. In some areas, the management was very effective, yet in others it was very poor having no leadership or even being totally ignored. Participants believed that it is necessary to determine responsibility of the teams and consider appropriate measures before, during, and after disasters. Regarding this issue, findings revealed four subcategories of: 1) lack of comprehensive data and information, 2) negligence of vulnerable groups, 3) Concentration on reconstruction and overlooking of rehabilitation, and 4) improper distribution of resources.
One of the obstacles impeding the process of rehabilitation was the lack of comprehensive information about the demographics of the people and residents of each district. This lack of this information was significantly noted in views of a rescuer:
Neglecting vulnerable groups was another subcategory extracted in the study. Findings showed that certain groups had not been considered in the distribution of goods, nor had their specific requirements been considered. Women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities were among the groups that, according to the participants, were greatly neglected. This significantly led to intensification of social confusion and delayed rehabilitation. Rescuers had firsthand views of negligence of these subgroups. One rescuer explained the situation as:
One of the female participants said:
Another extracted subcategory was the improper distribution of resources. In many cases, because of improper management much of resources were wasted thereby leading to more difficulties among the survivors:
Another subcategory extracted was mere concentration on reconstruction and overlooking of rehabilitation. People, authorities and recovery services focused only on reconstruction, with little attention to rehabilitation needs of the people. This led to intensification of social uncertainty and confusion in the earthquake-stricken areas, as explained by one of the participants:
The people of earthquake-stricken areas also concentrated on reconstruction and did not attend to other aspects of recovery. In this regard one of the participants said:
Participants believed that getting back to normal life depends on the completion of reconstruction and therefore they were worried about the delay of this process. Most of the participants emphasized the importance and priority of physical reconstruction and believed that their return to normal life significantly depended on completion of physical reconstruction.
Our analysis revealed two subcategories regarding incomplete reconstruction: 1) failure of timely reconstruction, and 2) Construction without considering the culture
Failure of timely reconstruction due to different reasons was one of the main factors contributing to confusion in returning to normal life. Based on participants’ viewpoint, one of the main reasons for this problem was the failure to control and supervise reconstruction and also break of contractors who had left the projects incomplete during the cold season so that people could not get back to their normal life:
From the people`s point of view, completion of reconstruction would be a necessary relief from their current situation and they believe that it would be a way to gradually forget the bitter memories of earthquake. However, a mass of rubble on the road side of many villages was a reminded of earthquake which left people with feelings of depression:
The second subcategory, the inability to consider local cultural needs, led to problems in recovery. Negligence of special requirements in rural houses was one of the main aspects of reconstruction that led to dissatisfaction and uncertainty in people’s lives. In other words, architecture and interior design of the reconstructed houses did not meet the needs of people in earthquake-stricken areas. They were just shelters and in many cases had no bedrooms, workshop, or barn. The reconstruction itself was very satisfying for people, but lack of attention to cultural aspect of reconstruction was one of the main concerns. A participant argued that they have especial problems with houses:
An important aspect in disaster recovery and return to normalcy is that survivors need to be active participants in the process. Self-efficacy is an important concept in psychological health, but when people are not included in their recovery; their sense of self-efficacy can be substantially undermined. Regarding the issue, following subcategories were extracted: 1) a top-down paternalistic approach, 2) undermining of trust, and 3) undermining of social networks and generation of self-centering.
Findings support the idea that even regarding the minor issues in recovery, people were not asked for their ideas and input, nor were they asked to participate in reconstruction and other aspects of rebuilding. Most of the plans have been performed following a top-down paternalistic approach. It caused people to feel dissatisfied and not to have the sense of ownership and belonging regardless of several governmental efforts that were made for them. In this regard, one of the participants said:
Another participant explained the situation as bellow:
Another extracted subcategory was undermining of trust. Before and after the disaster, a kind of distrust was built up between the earthquake-stricken people and the government, and also between benefactors and the government for various reasons. According the participants, these conditions paved the way for confusion and social uncertainty:
In addition, there was another kind of distrust between benefactors and the government that led to special problems. In fact, the donations were distributed by benefactors and these distributions were not targeted and organized. A participant described the situation as:
One of the community disaster recovery staff described the situation as:
The third subcategory of social capital neglect was the undermining of social networks and creation of self-centering. According to some participants, this was a significant obstacle in their ability to gain social effectiveness and a successful return to normal life:
Waste of people`s critical assets was another factor that impeded recovery. Some people were forced to sell their cattle at low prices after the earthquake because they did not have adequate barns and shelters necessary to take care of their livestock. These assets later were very important for getting back to normal life. Yet, most people were not able to make the loss up after some months because they could not afford the higher prices for cattle:
One of the participants explained the situation as:
Loss of properties and assets caused people to think the earthquake has seized everything they had, so they lose their hope to get back to the normal life. Shortly after earthquake, conditions had changed in a way that people thought they cannot revive their lost assets. For example one participant said:
Most of participants were challenging with significant psychological problems as one of the consequences of earthquake. Even after several months, different groups of people suffered from various mental problems such as depression, anxiety, and fear. In many cases, fear and anxiety led to sleep disorder among children. One of the participants described it as:
18 about months after the earthquake, many participants talked of lack of desire to get back to the normal life, feeling sad and …:
The current study, which was the first of its kind using a qualitative and comprehensive approach, evaluated the challenges of people in return to a normal life after a significant earthquake in rural areas of Iran. By analyzing viewpoints of earthquake victims and disaster experts dealing with rehabilitation interventions, the study provided a much needed perspective of the most important problems of post-disaster recovery process. The key element explored in this study was “social uncertainty and confusion”. Furthermore, the findings identified six inhibiting factors or barriers to successful recovery, namely, lack of a comprehensive rehabilitation plan, social vulnerability, ignorance of local social capital, incomplete reconstruction, waste of assets, and psychological problems. These issues greatly prolonged the rehabilitation process thereby causing people to suffer from social uncertainty and confusion.
One of the main obstacles on the way back to normal life after earthquake was the lack of a comprehensive rehabilitation plan. Participants indicated that the recovery process started with an emotionally-laden management approach with a lot of energy, but gradually the momentum declined until it reached a level of no further activity thus leaving people bewildered, confused, and forgotten. Another important issue was the presence of unresolved social problems before the earthquake which led to intensification of social uncertainty and confusion in the aftermath of the disaster. This finding was consistent with those of other similar studies
Social capital can be conceptualized as social connections between people occupying homophiles networks, across heterogeneous networks and organizations, and with those of higher status and power
Lack of occupational infrastructures was another issue in return to normal life. Absence of a systematic program in this regard and lack of income led to financial distress among people. Financial distress was also occurred as a result of forced sale of assets, properties, and livestock at low prices immediately after the earthquake and the subsequent failure to recover them due to high pricing in the recovery period. Pyles, (2007) have similarly emphasized issues surrounding restoration of jobs and businesses after disasters
Findings indicated that rebuilding of homes and infrastructures were of main preconditions of reconstruction in other spheres of rehabilitation. Delays in process of rebuilding led to delays in other social, psychological, and economic aspects. Speed and quality of reconstruction were specifically identified as the core problems. These findings were similar to other disaster related studies
Gender is an important variable among social factors; disaster research has indicated that women generally are more vulnerable to disasters
Finally, as typically seen in all disasters, people experienced various kinds of psychological and emotional disturbances. Depression, anxiety, and fear of future earthquakes were the most common problems indicated
According to the results of the current study, an effective rehabilitation plan needs a comprehensive management system that first of all should be approved and understood by people, intermediary and governmental institutions, and other beneficiaries. In addition, an effective rehabilitation plan also needs a common understanding, considering the complicated and multi-dimensional, dynamic and long term nature of getting back to the normal life with maximum rate of people’s participation. Rehabilitation is prior to reconstruction, but still most of the people and disaster management affiliated organizations in Iran believe that the rehabilitation is a set of governmental interventions aiming merely at reconstruction. According to the results of the current study, this approach has to be reformed and considered in the further policies of rehabilitation as a social and developmental process. Rehabilitation should be considered as a comprehensive process to support affected communities with their maximum representation and aiming people to achieve the highest degree of independency and sufficiency.
Hence, policy-makers are recommended to change their viewpoints about rehabilitation from a linear and outcome-oriented approach to a continuous, prolonged, and comprehensive process. It is also necessary for policy makers to consider psychosocial interventions issues raised in the current study as a main part of disaster recovery plans, and especially they must change their lens and see psychosocial interventions as a main part of the disaster recovery programs not as a luxury and unnecessary intervention.
This study is one of the few studies on recovery and rehabilitation process that has employed the social approach. The biggest strength of the present study was that the main researcher, though facing many challenges, lived in the affected area and observed closely the process of community recovery for almost 18 months. However, data were collected from a limited sample of individuals using purposeful sampling, as dictated by the employed qualitative method. Therefore, the findings cannot be generalized to other locations. The present study marks a starting point for clarifying and describing the process of resuming normal life after earthquake. Further study on this process is needed. Studies including the perspectives of more affected people, policy-makers, and local authorities could yield increased understanding of this process. There is a need for further investigation of the process of life after disaster using Grounded Theory approach to develop strategies for improving disaster recovery systems.
Hamid Reza Khankeh
Email: hamid.khankeh@ki.se
The authors wish to thank all participants for their support and involvement in this study, including affected people, local health workers, and all study participants.