Floods: Caring for Yourself
No one who lives through a disaster is untouched by the experience. Like other disasters, floods can result in emotional distress, as well as property damage. Recognizing and handling stress properly can help you meet the challenges of recovering from the flood and reclaiming your sense of control and security. This Web page contains links to information that address the impact of floods and strategies for coping.
Quick Tips:
- Follow a normal routine as much as possible.
- Eat healthy meals. Be careful not to skip meals or to overeat.
- Exercise and stay active.
- Help other people in your community as a volunteer. Stay busy.
- Accept help from family, friends, co-workers, or clergy. Talk about your feelings with them.
- Limit your time around the sights and sounds of what happened. Don’t dwell on TV, radio, or newspaper reports on the tragedy.
Detailed Information:
- Alcohol, Medication, and Drug Use After a Disaster
- Helping Children After the Flood
- When Terrible Things Happen
Other Non-MDH Resources:
- Disaster Distress Helpline
- Emergency Community Health Outreach (ECHO) - In cooperation with our public health and safety partners, ECHO is providing flood safety and emergency kit information in multiple languages on ECHO PHONE, the ECHO website, and streaming video from a recently updated television broadcast. (Available in Spanish, Hmong, Somali, Lao, Vietnamese, Khmer, Arabic, Oromo, Russian and English). The information includes mental health help and talking to children about crisis.
- Disaster Mental Health: Resource Links - Northwest Minnesota Council of Collaboratives
website host for Northwestern Minnesota Disaster Response Network serving Kittson, Marshall, Mahnomen, Norman, Polk, and Red Lake counties, and through the Adult Mental Health Initiative they also provide services to Roseau and Pennington counties.
- Floods: What You Should Know about (the Emotional Impact of) Floods - The National Child Traumatic Stress Network
- Flood Recovery Fact Sheets - Kansas State University, Research and Extension Service
- State of New Jersey - New Jersey Department of Human Services, Division of Mental Health Services
- Managing the Emotional Consequences of Storms and Flooding (PDF: 91KB/2 pages)
- Video, "Managing the Emotional Consequences of Storms and Flooding" (may need to use Internet Explorer to view)
- Managing the Emotional Consequences of Storms and Flooding (PDF: 91KB/2 pages)
