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This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

EV0543

Public mental health in disasters: the role of psychiatric services and crisis communication

PUBLIC MENTAL HEALTH IN DISASTERS: THE ROLE OF PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES AND CRISIS COMMUNICATION

Crisis communication is not an adjunct to disaster response but an intervention in its own right, and psychiatric services must be integrated throughout the emergency management cycle.

The study aims to frame communication and coordination of psychiatric services during crises and disasters as core public mental health interventions. The method is a conceptual synthesis focusing on communication, coordination, preparedness, and recurring system-level failures; no numerical data or sample was presented in the poster. The proposed framework describes a chain linking disaster (threat and loss), communication (information and trust), mental health (distress and support), and recovery (safety and restoration), and identifies five characteristics of protective communication: timely, transparent, empathetic, coordinated, and clear. The role of psychiatric services is addressed across three phases: pre-crisis preparedness (mapping vulnerable groups, defining referral pathways, and training frontline teams), response during a crisis (identifying acute risk, maintaining continuity of care, assessment, treatment, and referral), and post-crisis sustainability (monitoring emerging needs, supporting bereaved individuals and staff, and strengthening recovery). When communication works, panic and confusion decrease, trust and treatment adherence increase, misinformation decreases, and psychosocial support improves; when it fails, anxiety and helplessness, erosion of trust, stigma and social isolation, and long-term psychological harm emerge. The authors emphasize that psychiatry has a dual role: treating those who need clinical care while also helping to shape an environment that protects the mental health of everyone affected. They conclude that psychiatry should not be a component added after a crisis, but a service integrated throughout the emergency management cycle.

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