How to Help Children Cope with a Disaster
Take steps to manage your own feelings and plans for coping., Build and use social support systems of family, friends, community organizations and agencies, faith-based institutions, or other resources., Understand that a child’s reaction to a...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Take steps to manage your own feelings and plans for coping.
How a child copes with disaster or emergencies is often tied to the way parents cope because children can detect adults’ fears and sadness.
Parents are almost always the best source of support for children in disasters.
One way to establish a sense of control and to build confidence in children before a disaster is to engage and involve them in preparing a family disaster plan.
After a disaster, children can contribute to a family recovery plan. -
Step 2: Build and use social support systems of family
Parents can build their own unique social support systems so that in an emergency situation or when a disaster strikes, they can be supported and helped to manage their reactions. ,, In the absence of severe threat to life, injury, loss of loved ones, or secondary problems such as loss of home, moves, etc., symptoms usually diminish over time. , Clarify misunderstandings about risk and danger by listening to children’s concerns and answering questions.
Maintain a sense of calm by validating children’s concerns and perceptions and with discussion of concrete plans for safety. , If a young child is asking questions about the event, answer them simply without the elaboration needed for an older child or adult.
Some children are comforted by knowing more or less information than others; decide what level of information your particular child needs.
If a child has difficulty expressing feelings, allow the child to draw a picture or tell a story of what happened. , Following a disaster, children are most afraid that the event will happen again; someone close to them will be killed or injured; and that they will be left alone or separated from the family. , Personal contact is reassuring.
Hug and touch your children.
Spend extra time with your children such as at bedtime.
Calmly provide factual information about the recent disaster and current plans for insuring their safety along with recovery plans.
Encourage your children to talk about their feelings.
Re-establish your daily routine for work, school, play, meals, and rest.
Involve your children by giving them specific chores to help them feel they are helping to restore family and community life.
Praise and recognize responsible behavior.
Understand that your children will have a range of reactions to disasters.
Encourage your children to help update your family disaster plan. , You can get professional help from the child’s primary care physician, a mental health provider specializing in children’s needs, or a member of the clergy. , News coverage related to a disaster may elicit fear and confusion and arouse anxiety in children.
This is particularly true for large-scale disasters or a terrorist event where significant property damage and loss of life has occurred.
Particularly for younger children, repeated images of an event may cause them to believe the event is recurring over and over.
If parents allow children to watch television or use the Internet where images or news about the disaster are shown, parents should be with them to encourage communication and provide explanations.
This may also include parent’s monitoring and appropriately limiting their own exposure to anxiety-provoking information. -
Step 3: friends
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Step 4: community organizations and agencies
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Step 5: faith-based institutions
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Step 6: or other resources.
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Step 7: Understand that a child’s reaction to a disaster is brief and represents normal reactions to “abnormal events.” A smaller number of children can be at risk for more enduring psychological distress as a function of three major risk factors: Direct exposure to the disaster
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Step 8: such as being evacuated
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Step 9: observing injuries or death of others
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Step 10: or experiencing injury along with fearing one’s life is in danger Loss/grief: This relates to the death or serious injury of family or friends On-going stress from the secondary effects of disaster
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Step 11: such as temporarily living elsewhere
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Step 12: loss of friends and social networks
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Step 13: loss of personal property
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Step 14: parental unemployment
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Step 15: and costs incurred during recovery to return the family to pre-disaster life and living conditions.
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Step 16: Know that in most cases
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Step 17: depending on the risk factors above
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Step 18: distressing responses are temporary.
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Step 19: Encourage children and adolescents to share their thoughts and feelings about the incident.
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Step 20: Listen to what the child is saying.
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Step 21: Try to understand what is causing anxieties and fears.
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Step 22: Create a reassuring environment for your children.
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Step 23: Talk to a professional if you have followed the steps above and your child continues to exhibit stress
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Step 24: the reactions worsen over time
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Step 25: or if your children cause interference with daily behavior at school
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Step 26: at home
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Step 27: or with other relationships.
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Step 28: Monitor and limit your family’s exposure to the media.
Detailed Guide
How a child copes with disaster or emergencies is often tied to the way parents cope because children can detect adults’ fears and sadness.
Parents are almost always the best source of support for children in disasters.
One way to establish a sense of control and to build confidence in children before a disaster is to engage and involve them in preparing a family disaster plan.
After a disaster, children can contribute to a family recovery plan.
Parents can build their own unique social support systems so that in an emergency situation or when a disaster strikes, they can be supported and helped to manage their reactions. ,, In the absence of severe threat to life, injury, loss of loved ones, or secondary problems such as loss of home, moves, etc., symptoms usually diminish over time. , Clarify misunderstandings about risk and danger by listening to children’s concerns and answering questions.
Maintain a sense of calm by validating children’s concerns and perceptions and with discussion of concrete plans for safety. , If a young child is asking questions about the event, answer them simply without the elaboration needed for an older child or adult.
Some children are comforted by knowing more or less information than others; decide what level of information your particular child needs.
If a child has difficulty expressing feelings, allow the child to draw a picture or tell a story of what happened. , Following a disaster, children are most afraid that the event will happen again; someone close to them will be killed or injured; and that they will be left alone or separated from the family. , Personal contact is reassuring.
Hug and touch your children.
Spend extra time with your children such as at bedtime.
Calmly provide factual information about the recent disaster and current plans for insuring their safety along with recovery plans.
Encourage your children to talk about their feelings.
Re-establish your daily routine for work, school, play, meals, and rest.
Involve your children by giving them specific chores to help them feel they are helping to restore family and community life.
Praise and recognize responsible behavior.
Understand that your children will have a range of reactions to disasters.
Encourage your children to help update your family disaster plan. , You can get professional help from the child’s primary care physician, a mental health provider specializing in children’s needs, or a member of the clergy. , News coverage related to a disaster may elicit fear and confusion and arouse anxiety in children.
This is particularly true for large-scale disasters or a terrorist event where significant property damage and loss of life has occurred.
Particularly for younger children, repeated images of an event may cause them to believe the event is recurring over and over.
If parents allow children to watch television or use the Internet where images or news about the disaster are shown, parents should be with them to encourage communication and provide explanations.
This may also include parent’s monitoring and appropriately limiting their own exposure to anxiety-provoking information.
About the Author
Katherine Ward
Brings years of experience writing about cooking and related subjects.
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