2024 年 11 巻 1 号 p. 1-14
Aim: This study organized existing findings to determine the factors and effects of disaster-related stress among local government employees in affected areas.
Methods: A scoping review was conducted to systematically search five databases for published papers that included “disaster” and “local government employee” in either their title or abstract. As the targeted literature did not necessarily use the word “stress,” it was not used as a search word and instead extracted articles that dealt with stress were screened for. Qualitative content analysis was subsequently used to organize the descriptions.
Results: In total, 31 papers were analyzed. From these, seven categories of disaster-related stress factors were identified: (1) responsibilities as public servants take precedence over private needs; (2) drastic increase in personal workload due to a disaster; (3) difficulties in responding to diverse tasks unlike during peacetime; (4) inadequate communication during disaster response; (5) difficulties in ensuring adequate sleep and rest due to disaster response; (6) damage to self, family and acquaintances; and (7) burden reduction due to support from surroundings. In addition, five categories of the effects were also identified: (1) worsened health indicators; (2) development of new physical health problems or worsening of chronic diseases; (3) worsened lifestyle; (4) development of mental and psychological health problems; and (5) development of social problems.
Conclusions: Employees were affected both physically and mentally by the dual stressors of being disaster supporters and victims, and differences in their characteristics as public servants and the type of job held. Strengthening support, including individual health and organizational systems, which captures the characteristics of different occupations, is necessary.
