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The Mental Health of Expatriate and Kosovar Albanian Humanitarian Aid Workers
Author(s) -
Cardozo Barbara Lopes,
Holtz Timothy H.,
Kaiser Reinhard,
Gotway Carol A.,
Ghitis Frida,
Toomey Estelle,
Salama Peter
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
disasters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.744
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-7717
pISSN - 0361-3666
DOI - 10.1111/j.0361-3666.2005.00278.x
Subject(s) - expatriate , mental health , occupational safety and health , humanitarian aid , depression (economics) , medicine , suicide prevention , psychiatry , poison control , environmental health , political science , pathology , law , economics , macroeconomics
The mental health consequences of exposure to traumatic events and the risk factors for psychological morbidity among expatriate and Kosovar Albanian humanitarian aid workers have not been well studied. In June 2000, we used standardised screening tools to survey 285 (69.5%) of 410 expatriate aid workers and 325 (75.8%) of 429 Kosovar Albanian aid workers from 22 humanitarian organizations that were implementing health programmes in Kosovo. The mean number of trauma events experienced by expatriates was 2.8 (standard deviation: 2.7) and by Kosovar staff 3.2 (standard deviation: 2.8). Although only 1.1% of expatriate and 6.2% of Kosovar aid workers reported symptoms consistent with the diagnosis for post‐traumatic stress disorder, 17.2% and 16.9%, respectively, reported symptoms satisfying the definition of depression. Regression analysis demonstrated that the number of trauma events experienced was significantly associated with depression for the two sets of workers. Organisational support services may be an important mediating factor and should be targeted at both groups.