Exploring Disasters through the Eyes of Residential Nursing Home Caregivers

Using qualitative interviews, this research explores the experiences of residential nursing home caregivers in Fukushima, who provided support to elderly sufferers of Alzheimer's or other related forms of dementia during the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. Although the disaster vulnerability of care recipients such as the elderly, infirmed, disabled, and sufferers of dementia have been studied, their caregivers' disaster experiences, vulnerability and resilience have remained comparatively invisible and under-investigated. Their experiences suggest that coping with the disasters as caregivers was complex and unexpected, and it should not be misunderstood to imply that their resilience is predictable and expected.