The impact of disaster work on community volunteers: The role of peri-traumatic distress, level of personal affectedness, sleep quality and resource loss, on post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and subjective health

Highlights • We carry out longitudinal research, 6, -12, -18 months post-disaster in community volunteers. • We measure levels of post-traumatic distress and subjective health complaints. • Level of complaints is still high at 18 months. • Paying attention to quality of sleep in volunteers may reduce mental health complaints. • Supplementing lost resources of the volunteers may reduce mental health complaints.