TY - JOUR
T1 - Mental Health Service Need and Use in the Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy
T2 - Findings in a Population-Based Sample of New York City Residents
AU - Lowe, Sarah R.
AU - Sampson, Laura
AU - Gruebner, Oliver
AU - Galea, Sandro
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York.
PY - 2016/1/1
Y1 - 2016/1/1
N2 - The majority of disaster survivors suffering from psychiatric disorders do not utilize mental health services. Only one study to date has explored postdisaster service use after Hurricane Sandy, and the disaster literature is further limited by a lack of attention to survivors’ perceived need for services. We drew on data from a population-based sample of adults living in New York City neighborhoods that were most severely affected by Hurricane Sandy (N = 454). Less than 10 % of participants reported service needs (7.8 %) and service use (4.4 %) since the hurricane, 5.9 % were classified as having unmet needs (i.e., needs without use), and 2.5 % as using services without needs. Predictors of unmet mental health service needs included younger age, male gender, higher education, and exposure to more disaster-related stressors. The results suggest that efforts to reduce unmet postdisaster service needs could focus on reaching survivors with these characteristics.
AB - The majority of disaster survivors suffering from psychiatric disorders do not utilize mental health services. Only one study to date has explored postdisaster service use after Hurricane Sandy, and the disaster literature is further limited by a lack of attention to survivors’ perceived need for services. We drew on data from a population-based sample of adults living in New York City neighborhoods that were most severely affected by Hurricane Sandy (N = 454). Less than 10 % of participants reported service needs (7.8 %) and service use (4.4 %) since the hurricane, 5.9 % were classified as having unmet needs (i.e., needs without use), and 2.5 % as using services without needs. Predictors of unmet mental health service needs included younger age, male gender, higher education, and exposure to more disaster-related stressors. The results suggest that efforts to reduce unmet postdisaster service needs could focus on reaching survivors with these characteristics.
KW - Hurricane Sandy
KW - Mental health needs
KW - Mental health service utilization
KW - Natural disasters
KW - Posttraumatic stress
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84954366082&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10597-015-9947-4
DO - 10.1007/s10597-015-9947-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 26410217
AN - SCOPUS:84954366082
SN - 0010-3853
VL - 52
SP - 25
EP - 31
JO - Community Mental Health Journal
JF - Community Mental Health Journal
IS - 1
ER -