title: Risk and resilience factors affecting the psychological wellbeing of individuals deployed in humanitarian relief roles after a disaster.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  When disasters occur, humanitarian relief workers frequently deploy to assist in rescue/recovery efforts.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To conduct a systematic review of factors affecting the psychological wellbeing of disaster relief workers and identify recommendations for interventions.
  
  
  METHODS
  We searched MEDLINE®, Embase, PsycINFO® and Web of Science for relevant studies, supplemented by hand searches. We performed thematic analysis on their results to identify factors predicting wellbeing.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sixty-one publications were included. Key themes were: pre-deployment factors (preparedness/training); peri-deployment factors (deployment length/timing; traumatic exposure; emotional involvement; leadership; inter-agency cooperation; support; role; demands and workload; safety/equipment; self-doubt/guilt; coping strategies) and post-deployment factors (support; media; personal and professional growth).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As well as role-specific stressors, many occupational stressors not specific to humanitarian relief (e.g. poor leadership, poor support) present a significant health hazard to relief workers. Humanitarian organisations should prioritise strengthening relationships between team members and supervisors, and dealing effectively with non-role-specific stressors, to improve the psychological resilience of their workforce.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychological Medicine , King's College London , London , UK and.
authors.forename: Samantha K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Brooks
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychological Medicine , King's College London , London , UK and.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dunn
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychological Medicine , King's College London , London , UK and.
authors.forename: Clara A M
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Sage
authors.affiliation: b Emergency Response Department, Health Protection Directorate, Public Health England, Microbial Risk Assessment and Behavioural Science, Porton Down , Salisbury , Wilts , UK.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Amlôt
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychological Medicine , King's College London , London , UK and.
authors.forename: Neil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Greenberg
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychological Medicine , King's College London , London , UK and.
authors.forename: G James
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Rubin
mesh_terms: D060731:Emergency Responders / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D012066:Relief Work; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D012307:Risk Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological
keywords: Disaster; humanitarian relief; mental health; psychological impact; relief work