This study examines the feasibility of whether data collected daily at a crisis center could advise post-disaster response efforts following the 2023 Maui wildfires in Hawaiʻi, with an aim to inform both short- and long-term behavioral health and recovery efforts for those impacted.
Included in this study were Maui fire-related contacts received between August 8 and December 31, 2023, compared to the same months in 2022 and 2023. Confidence intervals for two proportions at the 95% level were calculated to identify significant differences (p < 0.05).
“Post-disaster needs” in August 2023 peaked at 41.06% and trended downward to 8.14% by December 2023. “Mental health issues” increased from 26.57% in August to 41.86% in December. Maui fire-related contacts with a primary concern of “suicidal crisis/thoughts” increased to a high of 9.30% in December, from a low of 2.90% in August 2023.
These findings aligned with results from other disaster-related behavioral health studies, suggesting that using real-time crisis center data in the aftermath of a disaster can reliably inform response and recovery efforts for affected individuals. Additionally, results identified significant behavioral health trends of those affected by the 2023 Maui wildfires.
To the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the few studies to analyze individual-level data collected daily at a crisis center in the aftermath of a wildfire.
