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The Hidden Victims of Disasters : Avoiding Stress-Related Disorders among Swedish Relief Workers through Preparedness

Since September 11, 2001, the focus on health among relief workers has become an important issue. The focus on mental health has caught the attention of researchers and as a fairly new research area, there are still many issues that need to be answered. This study evaluates the preparation of relief workers in two Swedish organizations (Swedish Civil Contingency Agency and Swedish Red Cross) by investigating how these preparations contribute in avoiding stress-related disorders among relief workers. The organizations were evaluated by comparing data of preparations, collected from interviews and documents, with a criteria mostly based on Walsh (2009) and scholars from the Antares Foundation Guidelines (2012). Compared to the criteria the organizations' strengths are found in information of the operation with the score 9 out of 10 (which is the fulfillment of the criteria). SRC's weakness is the education of relief workers with the score 6 out of 10. MSB is relatively strong in that category, but weaker in requirements for employment with 2 out of 4 points. However, these weaknesses must not obscure the overall good results for both MSB and SRC. This study establishes that the preparation of relief workers, in two of the most important relief organizations in Sweden, is good. However, further research is necessary to facilitate the creation of generally recognized guidelines for how to prepare relief workers.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:sh-18482
Date January 2012
CreatorsNilsson, Mikael
PublisherSödertörns högskola, Institutionen för naturvetenskap, miljö och teknik
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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