• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.179-187
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• 2018

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to assess physical illnesses, psychological difficulties, and daily life function of victims' family members one year after the Sewol ferry disaster, in order to establish a basis of strategies to promote their mental health and resilience. Methods : We statistically analyzed self-reported data collected from a survey conducted between March 22 and 28, 2015 with 139 family members of victims. Results : All respondents complained about one or more psychological difficulties, and 95.4% of them had newly diagnosed or exacerbated physical illnesses. An increased number of psychological difficulties was associated with a greater tendency to present physical illnesses including chronic headache, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, obstetrico-gynecological, genitourinary, and cardiovascular disease. In addition, the majority of respondents reported a decrease in life functioning. Specifically, 71.9% reported interpersonal avoidance and 63.9% reported difficulty in returning to work. Conclusions : Not only psychological trauma but also physical illness and daily functioning should be evaluated in detail and actively addressed in the bereaved family members after a catastrophe.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.651-659
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of family economic deterioration caused by COVID-19 on mental health among adolescents in grandparent-headed families. For the purpose, this study used raw data from the 16th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey constructed by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency in 2020 and analyzed the influence of family economic deterioration caused by COVID-19 on anxiety, stress, depression, and suicidal ideation. The main results regarding research questions are as follows. First, 39% of 589 adolescents in grandparent-headed families experienced family economic deterioration caused by COVID-19. Also, compared with adolescents who did not experience family economic deterioration, those who experienced deterioration showed higher scores of anxiety and stress as well as higher percentages of experiencing depression and suicidal ideation. Second, regression analyses showed that family economic deterioration caused by COVID-19 positively significantly influenced anxiety, stress, depression, and suicidal ideation. Based on the analyzed results, strategies to protect the mental health of adolescents in grandparent-headed families in disaster like COVID-19 were discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.39-48
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• 2022

Purpose : This study aimed to determine the experiences of the disaster response team 9 participants who participated in the disaster after the fire incident occurred in Jecheon Sports Center and their meaning and essence. Methods : Nine disaster response teams were the subjects of the study, and Individual in-depth interviews were conducted. Data were collected online between January 6 and April 30, 2021, from the software Zoom^TM. This study was conducted as a qualitative study by applying Giorgi's phenomenological experiential research method, which has an advantage in revealing the essential structure and meaning of experience. Results : Three major themes were derived from the study results: the stimulus through unfamiliar experiences, the grievances due to work environment and regional characteristics, and dullness resulting from hiding and enduring. The following 17 sub-themes were identified: learning through unfamiliar experiences, frustration due to unexpected circumstances, shock from unfamiliar experiences, doing my best in the present, confidence due to increased experience, disunified system, intervention of various interests, the atmosphere that puts responsibility on others, inactive help, unforgettable regional characteristics, working without time to settle, tolerating it in my own way, memories left in the unconsciousness, sudden suffering from memories that come to mind, movement in anxiety and tension, dullness, work with colleagues in the same situation. Conclusion : This study is meaningful in that it attempted to provide basic data in preparing a long-term strategy for effective policy direction and institutional protection based on the systematic mental health management of the disaster response team. Additionally, this study's results can be used as primary data for future research among Disaster Response Team.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.314-321
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• 2022

Background: In this study, the degree of anxiety, depression, and stress caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was identified, as well as the need for psychological prevention measures among medical students in the Daegu region that was designated the first special disaster area due to the spread of COVID-19. Methods: The subjects of this study were 318 medical students in Daegu who voluntarily participated in an online test using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and Impact of Event Scale-Revised Korean version. As a result of the test, risk students received immediate telephone counseling, and the effect of this telephone counseling was analyzed. Results: There were no differences in depression, anxiety, or stress according to gender and grade. As a result of immediate telephone counseling for risk students, significant differences were found in depression, anxiety, and stress, and the counseling was found to be effective. Conclusion: For medical students who are easily exposed to stress, the importance of psychological prevention measures and effectiveness of non-face-to-face counseling should be recognized. In the field of medical education, we must do our best to build a system that can be used immediately at the appropriate time for these programs.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.164-172
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• 2016

Objectives: This study attempted to evaluate the usefulness and direction of development of post-traumatic assessment and interventions based on the opinions of psychiatrics and disaster and trauma-related experts using the Delphi survey technique. Methods: In-depth individual interviews served as the pre-survey and were followed by Delphi primary and secondary surveys. Specialists in child and adolescent mental health, psychological support professionals specialized in disasters and related practitioners with experience of disasters in Korea completed a set of questionnaires and participated in focus group interviews and in-depth individual interviews on post-traumatic assessment and intervention. Results: We found that the following issues have a significant impact on the interventions after disasters: the proper time of the initial interview in the event of a disaster, assessment notices, aged assessment services, mandatory enforcement measures, scale screening and treatment intervention elements, symptoms degree classification, intervention standardization, the use of a levelled program, care unit environment, and operation plan. Conclusion: This study proposed effective mental health intervention measures and has implications for the development of evaluation treatment protocols after disasters.

• Stress
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.105-119
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• 2017

Backgound: The first step in disaster response is preparation, and education and training of workforce are considered as important elements of preparedness. The purpose of this study was to identify the needs of volunteers by exploring service experiences after a disaster to develop volunteer education programs. Methods: Participants were 11 volunteers who had supported the victims' families during about 1 year after the Sewol ferry disaster. Focus group interviews were conducted to investigate the experience of volunteer at the levels of individual, within-team and between-teams, and to discover the need of further training. Results: The results showed that the needs for self- and team-care and advanced education were reported. Conclusions: These results were discussed in terms of development of competence and mental health needs disaster volunteers. Limitations of this study and directions of future research were suggested.

• Sim-seong Yeon-gu
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.73-121
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• 2017

Disaster is externally an incident that causes enormous damage to society and humanity. Disaster also internally stimulate a variety of personal and collective complexes in the human mind. The sinking of Sewol Ferry in 2014 was a disaster that took away countless lives. People not only in South Korea but around the world were deeply affected by the incident. While directly taking part in disaster mental health support and meeting with people who were sunk in sorrow and helplessness and feeling the collapse of conceit against modern technological civilization, I realised the need to conduct study and research on the conscious and unconscious response from the viewpoint of analytical psychology. This research investigates the response and management of disaster in prehistoric times mainly through myths and petroglyphs. This study aims to consider the problems and improvements of disaster response in the modern times by finding the distinct cultural characteristics and the universal, fundamental, and archetypal human nature inherent in the concepts of disaster and responses to disaster and discovering their meaning and wisdom. Creation myths around the world show that in the beginning there was a disaster as part of the universal creation. Humanity has understood disaster as a periodic renewal of the world by the oppositeness between destruction and creation and had the idea that violation of taboo to be the cause of disaster since prehistoric times. Disaster could be interpreted as the intention of the Self that renews the fundamental consciousness through the externally appearing destructive action. Various rituals performed by man on earth renovates the human consciousness during a mental crisis situation, such as a disaster, and corresponds with the unconscious to create an opportunity for psychological regeneration that seeks harmony. Modern society has neglected the importance of internal dealing and the suffering human soul and concentrated on the external, technological and administrative actions related with disaster response. We cannot determine the occurrence of a disaster, but we can determine how to deal with the disaster. While developing external disaster response, we need to ponder on the meaning of disaster and conduct internal disaster response that care for human mind. Through this, we will understand the meaning of pain and have renewed mature psyche.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.673-683
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• 2018

The accident of Sewol Ferry is a disaster that provoked serious mental shock to the Korean people way beyond the level of generally-perceived catastrophic aftermaths. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between vicarious disaster experiences through media and post-traumatic stress(PTSD) symptoms of media users related to the accident. The responses of 417 people consisted of college, middle and high school students, and adults in a metropolitan area were collected for 12 days from the April 28, 2014 right after the accident. The results showed that the level of PTSD of social media users were higher than that of traditional media (newspapers or TV news) users on the accident. Also, the amount of use of disaster news information and social media revealed positive correlations with PTSD. Implications of this study are to demonstrate possible mechanisms of psychological trauma mediated by media on a disaster and its empirical data and to facilitate further research.

• Industry Promotion Research
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.95-102
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• 2024

This study aims to compare the role of the public sector in the U.S. and Korean medical security systems and study response measures in the social risk situation of the COVID-19 virus. The COVID-19 pandemic was a typical case of a 'disaster' that spread across the world across borders in a short period of time and caused serious social welfare losses by increasing the annual number of deaths by approximately 4% in 2020. Threats to health security, such as changes in social order, unpredictable endings, prolonged control of daily life, and deepening inequality, affected the economy, politics, and environment as a whole, and people had to experience anxiety and confusion due to mental and physical stress. Furthermore, developed countries failed to provide help to low-income countries in the face of global disasters. In this situation, the country's disaster management capacity to minimize harm and secure resilience, especially disaster response capacity in the health and medical field, is inevitably very important. Therefore, this study compares how the health insurance system, which is a system to guarantee citizens' right to life, differs from the United States, a liberal health care country, and raises the need to strengthen the role of the public sector.

• 재활복지
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.63-88
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• 2017

This study evaluated the actual status of special needs of the hearing-impaired person for disaster response. The analysis revealed a significant level of unmet needs in disaster response for hearing-impaired person. The 5 special needs in disaster response include: 1) communication needs, which involve securing the means to make an emergency rescue request and communicating information during the rescue process; 2) transportation needs, which indicate the effective evacuation capacity and the level of training; 3) medical needs, which address the degree of preparedness for physical and mental emergency measures and the delivery of health information for rescue and first aid process; 4) maintaining functional independence needs, which refer to the level of self-preparedness to minimize damage in disaster situations, and; 5) supervision needs, which correspond to a personalized support system provided to disaster-vulnerable groups.