ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the experience and published research to identify the principal variables that influence the reaction of people bereaved by disasters and to examine those interventions that can be expected, before, during and after a disaster, to reduce the risk of lasting problems in individuals, families, communities and nations. Bereavement services have developed separately from the field of traumatic stress. In the wake of small-scale national disasters a local office in the disaster area and a telephone hotline is needed to provide information and short-term support as well as liaising with local services across the country. Government involvement is crucial in medium-scale international disasters. Large-scale international disasters inevitably require the organisation of support in all of the countries involved. Communal rituals and memorials play an important part in all bereavement but take on added meaning when it is a community that is bereaved by disaster.
