A case study, performed around the effects of a severe flood on the mental health of the residents of High River, Alberta, is looking to provide guidance on how to support other communities after disaster, according to The CBC. To be released in late 2021, as part of the Health of Canadians in a Changing Climate report, the study takes note of the lessons learned about the mental stresses experienced by those in the community, including the nearly 13,000 people who were forced to relocate.
Katie Hayes, senior policy analyst for Health Canada’s Climate Change and Innovation Bureau, told The CBC of her observations from her field work in High River. “Many folks talked about always having an eye to the sky, wondering when the next torrential rains were going to occur,” said Hayes. “People reported feeling anxious every time they drove over the bridge to enter into the community.”
These feelings of anxiety weren’t restricted only to those displaced. “We were finding the grocery store, the bank tellers, the hairdressers were all becoming very overwhelmed because that’s where people were unloading,” Marianne Dickson, executive director of Wild Rose Community Connections, told The CBC.
The mental impact of the floods can be long lasting in unexpected ways, according to some people in the community. “I did not want anybody to tell me that I would be recovering from this disaster five to seven years later. But it was true,” said Rev. David Robertson, a minister at the High River United Church.
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