Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) widely occurs among victims or witness of disasters. With flashbacks, hyperarousal, and avoidance being the typical symptoms, PTSD became a focus of psychological research. The earthquake in Wenchuan, China, on May 12, 2008, was without precedent in magnitude and aftermath and caused huge damage, which drew scientists’ attention to mental health of the survivors.

A multi-layered approach to mental health and psychosocial support in emergencies includes the integration of psychosocial approaches into sectors with primary aims other than the enhancement of mental health and psychosocial support. This paper shares the experiences of Church of Sweden's psychosocial team in supporting its partner organisations (within the ACT Alliance) to integrate a community based psychosocial approach into programmes in sectors including: education, child protection, livelihoods, water and sanitation, and food security.

In response to a disaster in high income countries, disaster mental health professionals typically have, at most, one encounter with a survivor of the event. After providing the initial psychosocial interventions, the individual is either referred to follow-up mental health resources or has access to the mental health delivery system. When disasters occur in low and middle income countries, access to follow-up and treatment for mental health issues may be unavailable or limited in capacity.

The Early Childhood Education Centre Kathmandu, Nepal, asked us to do qualitative research into the wellbeing of Nepali children after the earthquakes in 2015 and what the factors were that helped the wellbeing to increase.