How AI can actually be helpful in disaster response
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We often hear big (and unrealistic) promises about the potential of AI to solve the world’s ills, and I was skeptical when I first learned that AI might be starting to aid disaster response, including following the earthquake that has devastated Turkey and Syria.
Mental Health Sources:
In the immediate aftermath of the February 6, 2023 earthquakes, graduate students at the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University began compiling mental health resources to support our colleagues, families and friends on the ground as well as those grappling with this grief and trauma from outside the region. Topics addressed by this guide include:
How to talk to children about natural disasters
– How to find post-earthquake psychological support
– Self and Community Care
– Secondary Trauma
– Trauma-Informed Mindfulness Practices
– Survivors Guilt
– Sleep challenges
– Collective Trauma
– Warmlines and hotlines to call if in distress or crisisThe resource guide includes materials in Arabic, Kurdish (both Kurmanji and Sorani), Turkish, and English. It is in a GoogleDoc format so it may be continually being updated as more psychological support for earthquake victims is being organized and announced. There are links to reach at least ~100 options for free emergency response mental health care/psychological support for those in the affected areas. There are also many resources for those in diaspora it as well, who are also facing severe and distinct psychological challenges.
The guide can be accessed directly at: bit.ly/QuakeMentalHealth
For more information on this special initiative, please visit: https://as.nyu.edu/research-
centers/neareaststudies/ special-initiatives/…
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