Abstract
Disasters such as it happened on the 27th February 2010 in Chile have important consequences for the mental health. This article aims to do a general reviewing of the research regarding the impact of disasters on mental health and to propose some reflections about their implications for our country. Investigation on the topic has focused on the assessment of the increase of psychopathological disorders after disasters, and
particularly on post traumatic and depressive disorders. Current models of conceptualization tend to focus on psychopathology aspects and tend to be limited for an appropriate understanding of the psychological effects of disasters. We propose that the impact of a disaster depends on both the loses, damages and feelings of threat experienced by people and their environment, and the long term consequences that these aspects have for people’s life wherein social and political variables are of particular relevance.
