How ‘‘amazingly resilient'' people are in groups in the aftermath of disasters such as the Canterbury earthquakes is a finding which jumps out from the research discussed in Queenstown last weekend, the driving force behind a psychology symposium says.
‘‘Individually, they can be exhausted quite quickly, but if they've got one another to lean on, whether it's in a family, whanau, a workplace, or even just a neighbourhood, the way they bounce back is quite astonishing,'' New Zealand Psychological Society president Frank O'Connor said.
Mr O'Connor, of Christchurch, said the Canterbury earthquakes dominated the papers, forums and workshops at the symposium, which involved more than 300 delegates and speakers from around the country and overseas, which concludes today.
Papers included testimonies from authors who otherwise may never have presented at the conference, such as staff from a district health board reporting their experiences, or from representatives of immigrant communities who had no experience of earthquakes, or what to do.
The Canterbury earthquakes were already the most studied quakes in the world from a psychological aspect, Mr O'Connor said.
‘‘The advantage we've taken is simply to do what we're there to do, which is to bring people together who are in the business of human behaviour and helping it change in a constructive way.''
Simple dietary improvements were found to help people cope with trauma, he said.
‘‘Vegetables are important because more than anything else they've got this mix of stuff that keeps us able to bounce and at a psycho-physiological level the consequence of that is these are the people who recover more quickly.''
Perspectives came from psychologists among the New Zealand Defence Force personnel who responded to the quake aftermaths.
The psychologist's first job was to monitor if anyone was traumatised by the recovery operation and apply ‘‘psychological first aid'' if needed, Mr O'Connor said.
‘‘They were also looking at the condition of the population at large and using their experience in watching how people are reacting, providing some guidance to the food and shelter supply, to say. ‘Hey, it looks like the priority here is people need comfort, they don't need medicine at the moment, can we speed up the cups of tea'.
‘‘While that might sound like a very small contribution, as soon as you settle a population down after a major event, it can start supporting itself.''
Mr O'Connor said the psychological crisis was far from over, six months after the devastating February 22 earthquake.
Christchurch citizens in the hardest hit eastern suburbs were coping as best they could, but they were tolerating a level of daily disruption which would cause a rapid onset of major depression in others who had not experienced the quakes.
‘‘As soon as people here in Canterbury started to laugh with each other, the misery got a little less and some of the drifting away has been of people who simply can't cope with the misery.
‘‘But what that's left behind is people who are at least willing to keep on trying.''
