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Elderly Niigata Quake Victims Still Feel Helpless
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Japan
October 23, 2006
Many elderly victims of the 2004 Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake are feeling increasingly helpless, according to a psychological study of residents of a village in Niigata Prefecture forced to evacuate to temporary housing, where they still live today.
The study on post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by the quake victims has highlighted the need for long-term psychological care for such people.
The village, formerly known as Yamakoshimura, was merged with the city of Nagaoka following the devastating earthquake and is currently undergoing a fast-paced reconstruction. Yet about 60 percent--or 1,200 residents--of those who used to live in the village still live in temporary housing.
The study was conducted in August 2005 and August 2006 by Hirotada Hirose, a professor of disaster psychology at Tokyo Women's Christian University, and Reiko Nakajima, a researcher at the university. They asked those people questions that offered insight into 13 typical symptoms of PTSD. Ninety of the responses were from people who had participated in both studies, and these answers were compared with each other.
As a result, the number of respondents who complained of any PTSD symptom decreased from 80 in 2005 to 73 in 2006. The number of respondents who said they were fed up with everything rose from 17 to 20, while those who felt lethargic increased from 11 to 15. Sixty percent of those who said everything was tiresome in the 2005 study were under 60, but in 2006, 60 percent of them were aged 60 or older. Also, nine of the 15 people who said they felt lethargic this year were 60 or older.
"Life under evacuation is dragging on and taking its toll [on the evacuees]," Hirose said. "Young people can rebound and overcome the suffering as time goes by. But the older you are, the more the pressure can cause a chronic feeling of helplessness."
They tend to shut themselves up in their houses, hiding their PTSD symptoms.
"They need support activities, such as visits by a volunteer," Hirose said.
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