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A case study describes the impact on a collection of the extreme floods in eastern Australia in February 2022, and the salvaging of the Lismore Regional Art Gallery art collection. Despite predetermined protocols and preparedness efforts, the gallery suffered unprecedented flooding, requiring coordinated solutions to support emergency recovery. The project included relocating and stabilising around 1400 artworks, divided between the permanent collection and temporary exhibitions. Coordinated collaboration with stakeholders was needed to determine which artworks were salvageable; initial assessments indicated 60%. However, after further assessment this was reduced to 40% of all artworks able to be returned to a condition suitable for storage and display. The paper focuses on the assessment criteria used to prioritise artworks for salvage and conservation: insurance value, condition post-flooding, the views of living artists on display of treated works, and sentimental and community importance. It also outlines the conservation processes for flood-damaged paintings on canvas, works on paper, and photographgraphs, highlighting challenges and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This letter aims to explore the potential impact of the Turkey-Syria earthquake on the psychological well-being of the affected children and adolescents. It emphasises the crucial importance of prompt identification and management of emerging mental health disorders in this vulnerable population. The letter draws on existing research evidence to highlight the need for suitable mental health interventions to mitigate the anticipated suffering of many children and adolescents affected by the earthquake. A comprehensive overview of the mediating factors which may play a role in the extent of the impact of an earthquake on the mental health of children is discussed. A range of appropriate strategies and interventions are recommended and the call for continued global support is renewed. We have concluded that major earthquakes can potentially contribute to the development of mental health disorders among children and adolescents. However, by providing timely and effective support, it is possible to prevent long-term psychological consequences and facilitate early recovery. We propose the urgent implementation of effective mental health interventions in the aftermath of the Turkey-Syria earthquake to foster the recovery and resilience of the affected young population. Mental health disorders are more prevalent in children affected by earthquakes. Prompt identification of emerging mental health disorders among this population is crucial. Management of the psychological impact in this context must be practical and needs-based. A focused and continued global support response is needed to manage the long-term challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 2 October 2020, a violent storm (Alex) reached the French Riviera and caused significant damage in three inhabited valleys in the hinterland of the city of Nice. Entire populations were exposed to prolonged stress (no means of communication, electricity nor water) and were particularly at risk of suffering from psychological consequences. We first hypothesized that a majority of children would experience an acute stress reaction. However, we also hypothesized that their clinical expression would differ depending on their developmental age. Thus, we aimed to evaluate, according to the child's level of development, the presence of acute stress symptoms. Consecutive interviews with the child/adolescent and his/her parents were conducted by child and adolescent psychologists and psychiatrists to assess symptomatology following storm Alex (from day 1 to day 3). Each interview assessed nine classes of symptoms that have been compared according to age-groups. 116 children have been evaluated (0.2-17.6 years, mean 9.1). The 0-5-years-old showed more agitation as well as developmental regression than children aged 6-11 (p =.011, p =.045) and 12-18 years (p <.001, p <.001). Anxiety was reported more frequently among the 6-11 years old than the 0-5 years children (p =.018). Overall, the interviewed children presented at least one manifestation of acute stress after the storm (94% for the 0-5 years; 83% for the 6-11 years and 74% for the 12-18 years). The results highlight the high rate of acute stress symptoms in a natural disaster context, their specificity depending on children's age. Therefore; it emphasizes the need to develop, improve and validate specific assessment tools. Scheduled follow-up evaluations will help to understand, after a natural disaster, the long-term stress response in children, paving the way for targeting early, intensive, specific and multidisciplinary symptomatic treatment approaches. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04850924. Acute stress symptoms in children and adolescents are very frequent in the context of exposure to a natural disaster with specifications depending on the developmental age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Skills for Life Adjustment and Resilience (SOLAR) programme is a brief, scalable, psychosocial skill-building programme designed to reduce distress and adjustment difficulties following disaster. We tested the feasibility, acceptability, efficacy and safety of a culturally adapted version of SOLAR in two remote, cyclone-affected communities in the Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu. This pilot adopted a quasi-experimental, control design involving 99 participants. SOLAR was administered to the treatment group (n = 49) by local, non-specialist facilitators (i.e. 'Coaches') in a massed, group format across 5 consecutive days. The control group (n = 50) had access to Usual Care (UC). We compared group differences (post-intervention vs. post-control) with psychological distress being the primary outcome. We also examined whether changes were maintained at 6-month follow-up. Large, statistically significant group differences in psychological distress were observed after controlling for baseline scores in favour of the SOLAR group. Mean group outcomes were consistently lower at 6-month follow-up than at baseline. SOLAR was found to be acceptable and safe, and programme feedback from participants and Coaches was overwhelmingly positive. Findings contribute to emerging evidence that SOLAR is a flexible, culturally adaptable and scalable intervention that can support individual recovery and adjustment in the aftermath of disaster. RCTs to strengthen evidence of SOLAR's efficacy are warranted. We report findings from the first control trial of SOLAR, a post-trauma, psychosocial intervention. SOLAR proved feasible, acceptable, safe, and effective relative to Usual Care when delivered using task-sharing to residents of the Small Island Developing State of Tuvalu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct exposure to natural disasters is associated with increased mental disorders. Help-seeking behaviour among Chinese adults is low and the barriers and facilitators of help-seeking among Chinese adults exposed to natural disasters is understudied. Using a person-centred approach, this study describes help-seeking preferences and their correlates in a sample of Chinese college students after experiencing Typhoon Hato, the strongest storm to affect Macao, China in the past 50 years. The baseline sample was collected one month following exposure to the Typhoon (September 2017). Six months following the baseline study (April, 2018), a total of 815 students (females = 71.5%) completed follow-up and were included in the data analysis. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) and Multinomial Logistic Regression were used to analyse the data via Mplus 7.4 and Stata 15.0. Three latent classes of help-seeking preferences were identified in this study, including: 'mental health professionals and close people' (MHPCP, 52%), non-seekers (31%), and 'multiple sources' (17%). The results of multinomial logistic regression showed that region of origin (mainland versus Macao, China), self-stigma, perceived helpfulness of professional mental health help, previous professional help-seeking behaviour, and perceived social support, were significantly associated with MHPCP help-seeking preferences. A large proportion of students preferred to seek support from loved ones and professionals. However, over 30% of the sample preferred not seeking help for mental health concerns. Further research is needed to enhance mental health treatment seeking preferences among Chinese college students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) involves a complex interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors. Numerous studies have demonstrated genetic variation associated with the development of PTSD, primarily in adults. However, the contribution of low frequency and rare genetic variants to PTSD is unknown to date. Moreover, there is limited work on genetic risk for PTSD in child and adolescent populations. Objective: This preliminary study aimed to identify the low frequency and rare genetic variation that contributes to PTSD using an exome array. Method: This post-disaster, adolescent sample (n = 707, 51% females, Mage = 14.54) was assessed for PTSD diagnosis and symptom count following tornado exposure. Results: Gene-based models, covarying for ancestry principal components, age, sex, tornado severity, and previous trauma identified variants in four genes associated with diagnosis and 276 genes associated with symptom count (at padj <.001). Functional class analyses suggested an association with variants in the nonsense class (nonsynonymous variant that results in truncation of, and usually non-functional, protein) with both outcomes. An exploratory gene network pathway analysis showed a great number of significant genes involved in brain and immune function, illustrating the usefulness of downstream examination of gene-based findings that may point to relevant biological processes. Conclusions: While further investigation in larger samples is warranted, findings align with extant PTSD literature that has identified variants associated with biological conditions such as immune function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess feasibility of online cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for children and adolescents with anxiety in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Method: 42 children and adolescents with clinical anxiety referred from primary care were invited to complete an internet CBT program (BRAVE-ONLINE). Outcome measures and assessment timelines were chosen to allow a comparison of the results with the program developers' randomised controlled trials. Results: At 6-month post intervention, more than half (55%) of the 33 participants assessed, no longer met criteria for their primary anxiety disorder. The mean number of anxiety diagnoses dropped from 2.76 (SD = 0.85) at baseline to 1.06 (SD = 1.25) at follow-up (z = -4.51, p < .001). Participants' anxiety and mood symptoms reduced and health-related quality of life improved significantly by follow-up. Satisfaction ratings were moderate to high. On average, by 6-month follow-up, children and adolescents had completed 6 of 10 sessions and parents had completed 5/6 (child parent program) and 3/5 sessions (adolescent parent program). Conclusions: Following a natural disaster (the Canterbury earthquakes), children and adolescents showed clinically significant improvement in anxiety and mood when they used BRAVE-ONLINE. This approach was both feasible and acceptable to families and offered a solution when mental health services were under pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yamamura E. Effects of interactions among social capital, income and learning from experiences of natural disasters: a case study from Japan, Regional Studies. This paper explores how and the extent to which social capital has an effect on the damage resulting from natural disasters. It also examines whether the experience of a natural disaster affects individual and collective protection against future disasters. There are three major findings. (1) Social capital reduces the damage caused by natural disasters. (2) The risk of a natural disaster makes people more apt to cooperate and, therefore, social capital is more effective to prevent disasters. (3) Income is an important factor for reducing damage, but hardly influences it when the scale of a disaster is small. [image omitted] Yamamura E. L'effet de l'interaction entre le capital social, le revenu, et l'apprentissage des experiences des desastres naturels: etude de cas du Japon, Regional Studies. Cet article cherche a examiner comment et jusqu'a quel point le capital social a un effet sur les degats qui resultent des desastres naturels. On examine aussi si, oui ou non, l'experience d'un desastre naturel touche la protection individuelle et collective contre les desastres futurs. On en a tire trois conclusions importantes. (1) Le capital social reduit les degats dus aux desastres naturels. (2) La menace d'un desastre naturel rend les gens plus susceptibles de cooperer et, par la suite, le capital social s'avere plus efficace pour empecher les desastres. (3) Le revenu est important pour la reduction des degats, mais n'est guere important au moment ou l'echelle du desastre est faible. Capital social Apprentissage Desastre naturel Yamamura E. Die Effekte von Wechselwirkungen zwischen Sozialkapital, Einkommen und Lernen aus den Erfahrungen von Naturkatastrophen: Eine Fallstudie aus Japan, Regional Studies. In diesem Beitrag wird analysiert, wie und in welchem Ausmass sich Sozialkapital auf den Schaden durch Naturkatastrophen auswirkt. Ebenso wird untersucht, ob sich die Erfahrung einer Naturkatastrophe auf den individuellen und kollektiven Schutz vor kunftigen Katastrophen auswirkt. Im Wesentlichen gibt es hierbei drei Ergebnisse. (1) Das Sozialkapital verringert den Schaden durch Naturkatastrophen. (2) Das Risiko einer Naturkatastrophe erhoht die Bereitschaft zur Zusammenarbeit, weshalb das Sozialkapital starker zur Pravention von Katastrophen beitragen kann. (3) Das Einkommen stellt einen wichtigen Faktor zur Verringerung von Schaden dar, hat aber kaum einen Einfluss darauf, wenn der Umfang der Katastrophe gering ausfallt. Sozialkapital Lernen Naturkatastrophen Yamamura E. Efectos de las interacciones entre el capital social, los ingresos y las lecciones aprendidas de desastres naturales: estudio del caso de Japon, Regional Studies. En este articulo analizamos como y en que medida tiene el capital social un efecto en los danos causados por desastres naturales. Tambien examinados si la experiencia de un desastre natural afecta a la proteccion individual y colectiva contra futuros desastres. En general, existen tres resultados principales. (1) El capital social reduce el dano causado por desastres naturales. (2) El riesgo de un desastre natural aumenta la predisposicion de las personas a cooperar y, por tanto, el capital social es mas eficaz para prevenir desastres. (3) Los ingresos representan un factor importante a la hora de reducir los danos pero apenas influyen cuando la escala de un desastre es pequena. Capital social Lecciones Desastre natural [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Individuals express symptoms of posttraumatic stress in various ways, noted for example in the many symptom combinations in the diagnostic manuals. Studies aiming to examine differences of symptom presentations by extracting latent classes or profiles indicate both the presence of subtypes with differing symptomatology and subtypes distinguished by severity levels. Few studies have examined subtype associations with long-term outcomes. Objective: The current study aimed to apply latent profile analysis on posttraumatic stress (PTS) in a highly homogenous sample of Swedish tourists exposed to the 2004 Southeast Asia tsunami and to examine if classes differed in their long-term outcome. Methods: An latent profile analysis was conducted using self-report data collected one year after the disaster from 1638 highly exposed survivors that endorsed ≥ 1 symptom of PTS. Associations were examined between the classes and predictors of PTS (loss of a relative or friend, subjective life threat) and levels of PTS at a three-year follow up. Results: The latent profile analysis indicated four classes: minimal, low, moderate, and severe symptoms. The classes were distinguished mainly by their levels of PTS. Loss of a relative or friend and subjective life threat were associated with a higher likelihood of belonging to any other class than the minimal class. The severity level of the classes at one year were predictive of PTS severity at the three-year follow-up. Conclusions: Homogeneous profiles of posttraumatic stress differing mainly in symptom severity were found in this sample of disaster survivors. Profile diversity may be related to sample variation and unmeasured confounders rather than reflect qualitatively different disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]