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Disaster responders play a crucial role in providing aid to individuals and communities following catastrophic events. Being tasked to protect and preserve life and property, these groups of professionals are constantly exposed to various hazards, which puts them at risk of negative mental health consequences. This chapter describes and discusses these mental health effects and interventions for disaster responders in Southeast Asia. The chapter defines who the disaster responders are in Southeast Asian countries. Drawing from the literature, this chapter enumerates the various positive and negative psychological consequences of disaster response, and the risk and protective factors associated with disaster response work. This chapter also describes the different interventions, such as psychological first aid and psychotherapy, following the Inter-agency Standing Committee (IASC) (2007) guidelines on conducting mental health and psychosocial support services (MHPSS), and focusing on the Southeast Asian context. This chapter ends with a discussion of the different challenges of providing MHPSS in Southeast Asia and with some recommendations on how to improve the delivery of these services and the mental health of disaster responders in general.

The purpose of this paper is to test a culture-building model, CREATE, highlighting the central role of leadership in shaping the predictors of innovation culture. The authors hypothesize that leadership directly predicts innovation culture, as well, as indirectly impacts innovation culture through mediating variables. Also, the authors examine the impact of leadership on innovation by ownership type.

A total 631 survey responses were collected from employees of sole proprietorship, family-owned corporations, and non-family corporations. Parallel multiple mediator models were used to test the hypothesized relationships of the variables.

The findings show that a leadership variable, role modeling, and support for innovation, directly and indirectly predicts an innovation culture. However, it appears that in sole proprietorship and family-owned corporations, leaders impact on innovation culture are through mediating variables, while in non-family corporations, leaders influence innovation through strategy, evaluation, and rewards.

The study shows that the culture-building model, CREATE, can be used as a framework for building an innovation culture in organizations. The study also showed that leaders among sole proprietorships, family-owned corporations, and non-family corporations may need to employ different approaches in building an innovation culture in their organizations.

Although the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 explicitly recognizes the need for psychosocial support and mental health services, the focus of this and many disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) plans lies in the response, recovery, and rehabilitation phases. Less attention has been given to how mental health aspects affect the predisaster phase. This chapter explores the less understood concept of “resistance” in the perspectives model of disaster mental health, which is related to DRRM themes of “prevention and mitigation” and “preparedness” interventions. Four strategies are identified by which DRRM interventions can contribute to psychosocial support and mental health: increasing stress resistance, fostering cohesion and social support, fostering positive cognition, and building self-efficacy and hardiness. We review the cases of the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Thailand and report existing socio-political DRRM initiatives for prevention, mitigation, and preparedness that can potentially enhance resistance as a predisaster intervention. Beyond medical services or clinical mental health interventions for select populations, DRRM interventions can benefit the general public. Despite natural intersections, there remains a need for deliberate and targeted initiatives that explore how vertical pyschosocial care programs can be created to straddle both DRRM and health sectors in practice.

The occurrences of natural hazards in Southeast Asia have become not only more frequent but their severity has also intensified. More than 200,000 persons perished from the 2004 tsunami resulting from the 9.1 magnitude earthquake in coastal Sumatra, Indonesia, which was the third strongest since 1900. A record-breaking typhoon internationally named Haiyan (locally known as Yolanda) ravaged Central Philippines in 2013. Failure of the communities, as well as the countries, to cope with the hazards has led to disasters that have compelled them to seek external assistance, especially internationally. In the 2004 and 2013 disasters referred to, one specific form of assistance was the conduct of art therapy especially for children. This chapter surveys the literature and examines why and how art therapy has been used in disasters in the region, and which areas either need further exploration or research.

This study sought to explain the high turnover rates in Philippine call centers using a cultural lens. Specifically, the study looks at the phenomenon of work‐life conflict and its impact on turnover intent. It also examined the moderating role of perceived organization support on the relationship between work‐life conflict and turnover intent.

The study utilized a two‐phased, mixed‐method approach. In the first phase, qualitative data from 30 interviews were obtained to validate the existence of the constructs among Filipino call center agents. In the second phase, 991 surveys were administered to quantitatively test the hypothesized relationships between the study variables.

Results show that work‐life conflict predicts intent to leave over and beyond that explained by job satisfaction. Findings also show that organizational support moderates the relationship between work‐life conflict and intent to leave. The results also reveal the context‐specific sources of work‐life conflict: physical and psychological impact of work schedule, social isolation and lack of social support.

The study focused on work‐life conflict and perceived organizational support. However, there are other variables that may be examined in future research such as personality, family, and organizational variables.

Beyond the traditional responses to the issue of work‐life conflict, the results suggest the importance of cultural nuanced responses to address work‐life conflict.

Although outsourcing is a boon to the economy of developing countries, policies encouraging call centers need to be coupled with an understanding of the personal and social costs of call center work.

This study highlights the importance of considering culture in viewing management practices and their impact on workers' behavior and wellbeing. It calls attention to the unique experience of call centers in developing countries and the importance of developing work‐life interventions that are contextualized to local culture.

This chapter describes the environmental risks and vulnerabilities faced by work organizations in Southeast Asia. It also presents cases that demonstrate how these organizations respond to disasters and natural hazards. To situate the case discussions, a review of existing studies of organizational resilience, particularly those that propose definitions, models, and frameworks is presented. The cases from the Philippines and Thailand illustrate how active and integrative efforts at building resilience can be institutionalized at the organizational level.

After decades of focus on disaster, crisis, and trauma itself, in recent years more attention has been devoted to the study of human strengths and resilience, as reflected in the rise of positive psychology and strengths-based social work. In particular, psychological growth after trauma has been increasingly studied, and one of the official terms referring to the phenomenon is posttraumatic growth (PTG). The PTG literature reflects work on positive psychology, trauma recovery, and resilience. The main components associated with PTG are new possibilities, interpersonal growth, personal growth, appreciation for life, and spiritual change (Calhoun & Tedeschi, 2014). These domains have been tested and measured with a scale, the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. While PTG and related concepts such as resilience have been studied in various populations, they have not yet been investigated extensively in Southeast Asia (SEA) populations. This chapter explores the psychological examination of resilience and PTG in the SEA context, with some discussion of the background of both positive psychological concepts and PTG research cross-culturally, and their application to the SEA region specifically. Brief relevant trauma history of the region, such as human-made and natural hazards impacting the region’s individuals and communities, and similarities and differences in the results of these traumas will be described. Implications for broader international work as well as cultural and clinical implications also will be discussed in this chapter.

This chapter summarizes the growing theoretical and empirical literature on the role of education in disaster risk reduction with a focus on Southeast Asia. Education and learning can take place in different environments in more or less formalized ways. They can influence disaster vulnerability in direct and indirect ways. Directly, through education and learning, individuals acquire knowledge, abilities, skills and perceptions that allow them to effectively prepare for and cope with the consequences of disaster shocks. Indirectly, education gives individuals and households access to material, informational and social resources which can help reduce disaster vulnerability. This chapter highlights central concepts and terminologies and discusses the different theoretical mechanisms through which education can support disaster risk reduction. Supportive empirical evidence is presented and discussed with a particular focus on the role of inclusiveness in education and challenges in achieving universal access to high-quality education. Based on a situation analysis and best practice cases, policy implications are derived that can inform the design and implementation of education and learning-based disaster risk reduction efforts in the region.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and evaluate a culturally sensitive and mindfulness informed psychological first aid (PFA) intervention for use with disaster workers in the Philippines intended to increase disaster knowledge and disaster coping self-efficacy.

The study used a non-experimental, pre-test, post-test design. Measures of disaster knowledge and disaster coping self-efficacy were measured before and after the PFA intervention.

Paired sample t-tests revealed significant pre/post-increases in knowledge about disaster reactions and disaster coping self-efficacy. Workshop evaluations indicated that the following proportions of participants rated these workshop components as the most useful: mindfulness, information about disaster reactions, small group sharing, information about coping, and the open space activity.

As in many disaster studies, it was not possible to include a randomized control group in the design. Another limitation was that only pre- and post-intervention data were collected. Future research should include longer-term follow-ups with participants to assess whether the benefits of the intervention are maintained over time. Future research may wish to address the limitations of the study including the lack of a control group and obtaining follow-up data to enable more robust conclusions.

These results indicate how the use of a group-based intervention may be helpful especially in a collectivist culture. At the same time, acknowledging cultural values such as spirituality is an important component to providing psychosocial support for survivors. Mindfulness was found useful both as an initial calming activity as well as a means for helping survivors manage their stress reactions. Finally, the utilization of an open space activity can also be a helpful problem-solving mechanism when done in intact groups, as it enhances not just self-efficacy but also community efficacy among survivors.

The study contributes to the dearth of knowledge on the use of PFA when used in a group, collective, and developing country setting.