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Volume No. 1 Issue No. 64 - Friday December 7, 2005 |
Psychological Consequences of the Earthquake on Dominica's Children
 by Dr. Emanuel Finn
The recent 6.0  earthquake, series of tremors that damaged scores of buildings and the landslides that cut off some telephone communications and rural communities in Dominica, resulted in property damage and financial loss for our island home. A less grave obvious consequence of the diaster is the silent negative impact upon the mental health of the most vulnerable citizens of our country; the children.
The effects of these disasters on children and adolescents can result, and often do, in a wide range of emotional and behavioral disturbances among the younger population. Specific clinical disorders such as post traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression are generally present in a large percentage of children after such disasters. These effects may worsen with repeated exposure to earthquakes and after shocks.
According to seismologist Dr. Derek Gay who had been on the island as part of the Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) team, “ Dominica will continue to experience after shocks for up to two months and there is no need to live in fear that something bigger is going to happen. That would probably be unlikely.”
In spite of this reassurance from the seismologist, studies that have been conducted in Italy on children who survived and experienced earthquakes in 1980, 1983 and 1984 show that the experience of these children as a result of these natural disasters could have long term implications for their abilities to adjust to life later.
A study of 274 children ages 8-11 years who had been exposed to the 1983 earthquake in Italy shows that as long as four (4) years after the quake, they demonstrated more behavioral problems and difficulties in adaptive functioning than children of a similar age who had not been exposed to an earthquake.
Those children exposed to the earthquake demonstrated psychological complaints as well as behavioral problems such as anxiety and depression, attention problems, withdrawal behavior and delinquent and aggressive behavior. The same children also demonstrated problems in adaptive function. This was measured by the quality of a child’s schoolwork, the extent of happiness he or she felt in class, the extent of learning in the classroom and the appropriateness of a child’s behavior as compared to that of children of a similar age.
The study findings strongly suggest that children should have counselors and crisis management programs specifically designed for them to ameliorate long-term psychological problems as a result of natural disasters. Unfortunately, hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanoes have become an inevitable part of life on the Nature Island of the Caribbean. One primary way to manage this reality and its aftermath is to learn from them. Very often, ripple effects occur pyschologically when secondary mental effects of these disasters are not treated or paid attention to.
I asked Dominica’s UN Ambassador Crispin Gregoire if the government had any programs in place to counsel children in the aftermath of the recent earthquake, aftershocks and landslides? The ambassador told me that ‘Senator Jacinta Bannis (who hails from Castle Bruce) of the Ministry of Community Affairs is engaging CDERA to provide qualified and trained counselors and psychotherapists to identify and treat the children who have suffered emotionally and mentally. He also said that there are probably temporary programs on the island, which are being conducted by social workers that he is not currently aware of to deal with this situation.
Honorable Gregoire took the opportunity during our telephone interview to convey that he thinks that Prime Minister Skerritt has handled the tragedy in a very progressive manner and is showing real leadership during this crisis period. ‘He is not only reassuring children, adults and the entire country that all is well, but is also doing everything that is humanly possible to continue to get the country back to a state of normalcy.
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