Mental Health Support in Disaster: Search and Rescue South China Sea Operation

Abstract

A study was conducted to identify high risk cases of stress, anxiety and depression and to provide initial intervention as well as emotional support among ship crews who have been hijacked by pirates during the rescue operation in the South China Sea in June 2015. Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) is a self-administered screening question- naire was used to detect symptoms in three domains mainly stress, anxiety and depression. A total of 21 ship crews were screened where it was found that 52.3% (n= 11) was posi- tive in the three domain of symptoms namely stress, anxiety and depression. It was found that 38.1% (n= 8) of the younger ship crews reported feeling empathy towards few of the pirates during the period of detention by them. This was known as Stockholm syndrome which describes the feeling of the victim towards their aggressor. This feeling sometimes can hamper the search and rescue mission and need to be addressed to the victim. It is important to allow ventilation of symptoms in the immediate aftermath of disaster. This would play important role in prevention of serious psychological problems and illness in the future.