The Asia-Pacific Workshop 2013 Workshop on Psychological Intervention after Disasters

This year’s workshop is the second of the series, after the successful one in the year 2012, in Beijing. The focus on the Asia and Pacific region relates to two important facts: First, the four billioninhabitants of the region form 60% of the world’s population, yet in the last decade, 41% of the naturaldisasters around the world occurred in this region, bringing untold damage, loss of life, and hardship., Second, the majority of countries in this region often lack an advancedinfrastructure or responsive rescue systems, meaning that help is typically concentrated on addressingphysical and infrastructural devastation with less attention paid to effects on individuals, especiallyon psychological adversity. For example, people need help to deal with problems arising from the lossof close relatives, from significant property and/or environmental loss, from the effects of physicalinjury, and from other stressors, including the overarching effects of displacement. The effects on psychological health, which can be long-lasting, are known to vary with age and other demographiccharacteristics, reflecting differences in cognitive capabilities and other resources to deal with thechallenges of a disaster. Here the concept of resilience is a potentially powerful asset in understandingresponses to disaster: the degree of resilience to stressors depends on both social and individual factorswithin a particular region, so that it is important to be mindful of the cultural and infrastructuralcontext.