Abstract
This study focuses on post-disaster temporary housing residents who received support from disaster relief volunteers, and examines their psychosocial reaction to support offered and the significance and meaning they attached to these activities. Additionally, the study examines how relationships between disaster relief volunteers and temporary housing residents transformed and shifted over time. The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 elderly people who had experience living in temporary housing facilities. The interview data was then analyzed using the modified grounded theory approach. The following conclusions were drawn:
(1) At the core of the relationship between the temporary housing resident and the disaster relief volunteer is the recognition that the volunteer is there to absorb (listen and take in) some of the thoughts and feelings of the disaster survivor, placing the volunteers in a positive light. This becoming the foundations of the relationship dynamic.
(2) In order to deepen this relationship; volunteers, useful/thoughtful support services and other staff (long-term volunteers and/or relief organization staff) are required in tandem with each other.
(3) Maintaining the positive temporary housing resident-volunteer relationship is believed to reduce environmental factors such as stress for the residents over the long-term.
(4) Fostering personal relationships between temporary housing residents and volunteers, can even shift paradigm of temporary housing residents as ‘recipients of support’ to ‘givers of support back (to the volunteers).’
(5) These strong personal relationships over the long-term could be a factor in transforming the disaster into something with a positive significance for some disaster survivors.
