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Secondary traumatic stress and psychological distress among responders to the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Review and meta-analysis examines secondary traumatic stress, PTSD and related distress among earthquake responders, including factors that responders identified as making work more bearable.

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Published on IPP

  • Publisher(s): Frontiers Media SA

  • Publication date: 8 October 2026

  • Country: Türkiye

Why it matters in operational practice: Welfare planning should be designed into prolonged or traumatic incidents—relief, role rotation, supervision, post-incident follow-up and routes to support—not deferred until after demobilisation.

Operational transferability: Applicable with adaptation across SAR organisations, particularly major incidents and body-recovery or disaster deployments.

Important methodological limitations: Evidence is tied to one exceptional disaster, mixed responder groups and variable study quality; it cannot establish which support interventions cause better outcomes.

Training influence: Include welfare and cumulative-exposure decisions in command exercises, alongside relief planning, supervisor check-ins and structured post-incident support.

SAR training sections: Incident management; leadership; fatigue and welfare; planning decisions and contingencies; handover; organisational learning.