Safeguarding the Mental Health of Disaster Survivors and Frontline Healthcare Workers During Pandemics

Submission Deadline: 31 December 2025 View: 587 Submit to Special Issue

Guest Editors

Dr. Carol S. North

Email: carol.north@utsouthwestern.edu

Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390-9070, USA

Homepage:

Research Interests: Disaster mental health, psychiatric epidemiology and nosology

Dr. Traci N. Adams

Email: traci.adams@utsouthwestern.edu

Affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA

Homepage:

Research Interests: Physician mental health

Dr. E. Whitney Pollio

Email: whitneypollio@boisestate.edu

Affiliation: School of Nursing, Boise State University, Boise, ID 83725, USA

Homepage:

Research Interests: Disaster mental health, medical education

Summary

Background/Importance: Existing disaster mental health (MH) research has demonstrated that individuals of various types of groups exposed to disasters uniformly experience distress; however, only a subset of disaster-exposed individuals develop psychiatric illness, most commonly disaster-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The Covid-19 pandemic ignited a MH crisis for healthcare workers. Prior research on disaster MH more generally represents a starting point to inform responses to the MH issues of this population. There is a pressing need for expansion of this disaster MH research to focus on healthcare workers after pandemics, other disasters, and critical incidents.

Aims/scope: The aims of this Special Issue are: 1) to examine the intersection of postdisaster MH across various disaster-exposed populations and healthcare workers specifically, and 2) to weave general disaster MH principles together with pandemic-related MH findings from frontline physicians caring for Covid-19 patients. Knowledge gained from empirical research highlighted in this Special Issue can inform a systematic framework for application of postdisaster interventions to safeguard the MH of healthcare workers, expanding from findings among other exposure groups.

Suggested themes: Disaster-related psychological distress and psychopathology; physicians/healthcare workers and other disaster-affected groups; postdisaster MH interventions informed by empirical research.

Keywords

Published Papers