Rio ’s Mountainous Region (“Região Serrana”) 2011 Landslides: Impact on Public Mental Health System

In conclusion, our study is an effort to address what the Sendai Framework considers a priority: Understanding disaster risk. We observed that the 2011 Landslides in Serrana Region led to a higher burden to public mental health care and that this event is part os a series of events that have been happening in the region as in other areas of the country for a long time. Recommendation: Recognising this study has shown significant impacts in time and space on mental health, it may be helpful to consider using similar methodologies to repeat this work to see if it is a consistent finding from other landslides, extreme weather events or other incidents. It would also be important to design studies to identify vulnerable populations, and evaluate the difference in mental health access between the population with access to private health services and those that rely exclusively on SUS. LIMITATIONS Our study has important limitations. One limitation of our study is the fact that we collected the data retrospectively and part of the input of data was during and following a disaster, which could impact the accuracy of reported data. Another limitation we need to point out is that we only used data from the public health system and, in Brazil, the private sector accounts for an important part of health assistance. We should also point out that the increase in demand for mental health care may be overestimated because people may have become more aware of mental illnesses in the after...
Source: PLOS Currents Disasters - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Source Type: research