Natural disasters play a role in the development of trauma. These disasters include hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, floods, and earthquakes. Their happenings and the impacts of their occurrence lead to humans and society experiencing emotional, mental, psychological, and physical challenges. Human services professionals are integral in dealing with crises, including those caused by natural disasters. Their expertise and experience help in dealing with crises through offering emotional support, crisis intervention, coordination with other agencies, and the provision of family and societal support. This paper covers the description of a hurricane crisis experience that warrants the attention of a human services professional.
A hurricane has experiences that later impact the human’s emotional, mental, and psychological wellness. There are various emotions and feelings during the storm and the period after it. Before the storm, people are in fight or flight mode and have active preparedness in anticipation of the hurricane. After the storm, there is exhaustion and handling a new way of life, with water and electricity challenges. Seeing the landscape images left after the storm, which lacks the beautiful beaches, brings about sadness and helplessness. There is a life disruption, and things and experiences never return to normal. The fun of strolling and playing on the beaches becomes eliminated, and enjoyable time spent with family and friends becomes constrained. Experiencing a hurricane and its aftermath brings about intense physical, mental, and emotional responses to the reminders of the experiences. A hurricane affects individuals and society, who experience various emotional, psychological, and social problems. The immediate response to a hurricane is shock, which grows into depression and anxiety. These signs lead to traumas, and the majority of hurricane survivors experience post-traumatic stress disorder signs after the event. The helpless feelings, loosing of loved ones, disruption of life, and deeply overemotional feelings from natural disasters lead to trauma.
A hurricane situation leads to the victims experiencing emotional effects, leading to the need for emotional support. There is an experience of grief, disruption of life, anxiety, and depressive signs that require the need for human services professionals. Hurricanes bring about human displacement and housing challenges. People become displaced, and their daily routines are temporarily or permanently disrupted. Houses become destroyed, and water and electricity are disconnected. Human services professionals help hurricane victims find temporary accommodation and assist in reconstructing their houses, permanent relocation, and creating their lives to fit the post-hurricane normal (Witt et al., 2022). Creating a new life after the experience of a traumatic event requires the help of a human services professional to guide on the emotional, physical, psychological, and mental impact of the whole process.
According to Lee et al. (2020), hurricanes constitute crises that require crisis intervention to ensure effectiveness in response. Depending on the magnitude of a hurricane, crisis intervention approaches need to be immediately used to help those with many challenges and distress. Human services professionals have the expertise and experience to assess the severity level of a hurricane and the provision of the most suitable and effective crisis intervention approach. Hurricanes disrupt not only housing but also family and friend connections. They contribute to strained family relationships and community networks. With the disruption of beaches, families and friends get denied the opportunity to spend time walking and playing in the beautiful spaces. In cases where death occurs from hurricanes, the families may get into strained relationships. The disruption in power and electricity supply contributes to communication breakdowns. Human services professionals support families and societies to ensure they deal with strained family and friends connections and link communication to avoid increased communication interruptions and delays.
Additionally, hurricanes make life increasingly challenging for vulnerable members of society and children. During this crisis, children and vulnerable society members like the elderly and those living with disabilities require special and dedicated attention to deal with the negative influences Lee et al. (2020). Human services professionals offer expertise and crisis intervention knowledge to help this demography of society with hurricanes and their effects. Managing and responding to a hurricane situation requires the collaborative effort of various government agencies and the private sector. These agencies include emergency and disaster response teams, medical providers, and humanitarian organizations. A human services professional contributes to the agency’s and organizations’ effective collaboration by ensuring coordination and utilization of an integrated strategy to deal with the hurricane.
In conclusion, this paper has covered the description of a hurricane crisis experience that warrants the attention of a human services professional. Natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes lead to opposing emotional, mental, psychological, and physical challenges to humans and society. A hurricane contributes to feelings of helplessness, anxiety, depression, and eventual post-traumatic stress disorder. There is a physical disruption in power and water supply, destruction of houses, and disruption of daily lifestyles. A human services professional deals with crises by providing expertise, skills, and experience in emotional support, crisis intervention, housing issues, helping children and vulnerable society members, and coordinating with other agencies and private organizations.
References
Lee, J.-Y., Kim, S.-W., & Kim, J.-M. (2020). The Impact of Community Disaster Trauma: A Focus on Emerging Research of PTSD and Other Mental Health Outcomes. Chonnam Medical Journal, 56(2), 99. https://doi.org/10.4068/cmj.2020.56.2.99
Witt, A., Sachser, C., & Fegert, J. M. (2022). Scoping review on trauma and recovery in youth after natural disasters: what Europe can learn from natural disasters around the world. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-022-01983-y
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