Smartphones and other mobile devices could help improve the delivery of mental health services in Asia before, during, and after disasters, according to a paper written by a Yale Department of Psychiatry resident.
Kunmi Sobowale, MD, a first-year resident, writes that in Asia, where natural disasters are common, researchers have recorded new onsets of symptoms or conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder after earthquakes, tsunamis, and mudslides. However, there are not enough psychiatrists in the region to treat people’s mental health needs after disaster strikes.
In the paper, published in the Asian Journal of Psychiatry, Sobowale suggests that mobile technology be used to deliver services during all phases of a disaster. Studies show that more people in Asia are carrying smartphones, even in dangerous or remote areas, and that messages advising people of approaching storms, or how to react after a disaster, could be translated into many languages.
“Despite barriers, there is great potential for digital tools like smartphones to offer novel solutions for mental health disaster response in Asia,” Sobowale wrote. “The simple lack of psychiatrists, enormity of past and likely future disasters, difficulty accessing disaster sites, and need for both immediate and long term monitoring and treatment necessitate a novel solution that challenges current notions of mental health care and offers new directions.”
Despite barriers, there is great potential for digital tools like smartphones to offer novel solutions for mental health disaster response in Asia.
Kunmi Sobowale, MD, first-year resident, Yale Department of Psychiatry
He acknowledged one challenge would be for the ability of the Internet and mobile networks to withstand the severe conditions and remain in service after a storm. He said the government and mental health leaders would have to support the system for it to work.
The next step would be to have a multidisciplinary team study the feasibility, safety, privacy, ethics, deployment, monitoring, and efficacy of digital tools in mental health response in Asia after disasters, he said.