Investigation of Aged Individuals in the Kahramanmaraş Earthquake in Turkey

Aged individuals, who are among the vulnerable individuals in society, constitute an important group that should be protected and protected. The underlying reason for this can be thought of as the physiological and psychological states of aged individuals. Under these considerations, it was aimed to determine what happened in the earthquake disaster, which was the epicenter of Kahramanmaraş Pazarcık and Elbistan on February 6, 2023, under the opinions of aged individuals. Phenomenological case design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the research. The study was conducted with 300 individuals over the age of 300 who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study. 58.3% of the individuals participating in the research are male and 41.7% are female. 100% of them have encountered a disaster at some point in their lives, and 50% of these disasters have been pandemics. In the study, the data were collected with a semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers. At the end of the research, it was found that aged individuals were most anxious (n=300) and experienced anxiety (n=178), constantly watching television or reading the newspaper (n=180); In the 6 February earthquake, it was determined that they experienced the highest rate of willingness to help (n=300) and fear (n=290) and that they constantly watched television (n=300). In line with the results obtained from the research, it can be suggested that psychosocial support mechanisms should be effectively presented in the face of disasters, especially for older individuals. Keywords: Disaster, Crisis, Aged individual, Earthquake, Psychosocial support