Study finds postquake PTSD common for school teachers

AUCKLAND: Schoolteachers were among those most affected by posttraumatic stress disorder following the Christchurch earthquakes, University of Otago research has found.

The study published in Disaster Prevention and Management, An International Journal, involved a survey of 226 people — including 140 from Christchurch and 86 from Hamilton — affected by the 2010 and 2011 quakes.

It found most people suffering PTSD were those not considered traditional ‘‘first responders’’ to an emergency, lead researcher associate professor David McBride said.

Instead, they were more likely to be female, a teacher or someone who had experienced more than 11 socalled critical incidents, such as being injured or watching buildings collapse, during the earthquake.

Their distress typically lasted 12 months.

The research findings had been passed on to the teachers unions, NZEI Te Riu Roa and the New Zealand Post Primary Teachers’ Association.

The study, undertaken to identify what factors may have caused PTSD symptoms among frontline workers, also sought to identify vulnerable groups of people.

Among those included in the study’s survey were utility, construction and demolition workers, Maori wardens, Red Cross workers, school teachers and nongovernmental organisations’ staff.

These ‘‘nontraditional responders have leadership and management roles in crisis, both during the event and in the much longer recovery phase’’, the researchers said.

Mr McBride said past research showed teachers played important roles supporting the emotional recovery of pupils and families.

The Otago study said ‘‘teachers consistently (had) high scores for emotional exhaustion, anxiety and social dysfunction’’ after the quakes. — NZN