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Disaster management can be defined as the organization and management of resources and responsibilities for dealing with all humanitarian aspects of emergencies, in particular preparedness, response and recovery in order to lessen the impact of disasters
Types of disasters Disaster prevention Disaster preparedness Disaster relief Disaster recovery Objective of disaster management: The need to address disaster management What is disaster management? How national physical therapy organisations can contribute How individual physical therapists can contribute What physical therapists should consider before volunteering How physical therapists can plan ahead before volunteering Preparations physical therapists can make once they have volunteered What physical therapists can do in a disaster zone after the emergency Organisations involved in disaster management Resources Glossary of terms used in disaster management
Types of disasters
There is no country that is immune from disaster, though vulnerability to disaster varies. There are four main types of disaster.
Natural disasters. These disasters include floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and volcano eruptions that can have immediate impacts on human health, as well as secondary impacts causing further death and suffering from floods causing landslides, earthquakes resulting in fires, tsunamis causing widespread flooding and typhoons sinking ferries Environmental emergencies. These emergencies include technological or industrial accidents, usually involving hazardous material, and occur where these materials are produced, used or transported. Large forest fires are generally included in this definition because they tend to be caused by humans. Complex emergencies. These emergencies involve a break-down of authority, looting and attacks on strategic installations. Complex emergencies include conflict situations and war. Pandemic emergencies. These emergencies involve a sudden onset of a contagious disease that affects health but also disrupts services and businesses, bringing economic and social costs. Any disaster can interrupt essential services, such as the provision of health care, electricity, water, sewage/garbage removal, transportation and communications. The interruption can seriously affect the health, social and economic networks of local communities and countries. Disasters have a major and long-lasting impact on people long after the immediate effect has been mitigated. Poorly planned relief activities can have a significant negative impact not only on the disaster victims but also on donors and relief agencies. So it is important that physical therapists join established programmes rather than attempting individual efforts. Local, regional, national and (where necessary) international organisations are all involved in mounting a humanitarian response to disasters. Each will have a prepared disaster management plan. These plans cover prevention, preparedness, relief and recovery (see below).
Disaster prevention
These are activities designed to provide permanent protection from disasters. Not all disasters, particularly natural disasters, can be prevented, but the risk of loss of life and injury can be mitigated with good evacuation plans, environmental planning and design standards. In January 2005, 168 Governments adopted a 10-year global plan for natural disaster risk reduction called the Hyogo Framework. It offers guiding principles, priorities for action, and practical means for achieving disaster resilience for vulnerable communities.
Disaster preparedness
These activities are designed to minimise loss of life and damage for example by removing people and property from a threatened location and by facilitating timely and effective rescue, relief and rehabilitation. Preparedness is the main way of reducing the impact of disasters. Community-based preparedness and management should be a high priority in physical therapy practice management.
Disaster relief
This is a coordinated multi-agency response to reduce the impact of a disaster and its long-term results. Relief activities include rescue, relocation, providing food and water, preventing disease and disability, repairing vital services such as telecommunications and transport, providing temporary shelter and emergency health care.
Disaster recovery
Once emergency needs have been met and the initial crisis is over, the people affected and the communities that support them are still vulnerable. Recovery activities include rebuilding infrastructure, health care and rehabilitation. These should blend with development activities, such as building human resources for health and developing policies and practices to avoid similar situations in future. Disaster management is linked with sustainable development, particularly in relation to vulnerable people such as those with disabilities, elderly people, children and other marginalised groups. Myths and Realities of Disaster Assistance summarises some of the common misunderstandings about disaster management.
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Contribute to policy development and local disaster planning; Work with their member organisation to support the organisations disaster management planning; Learn about risks and prevention strategies and prepare to react to disasters in their own homes, places of work, locality, region and further afield; Donate to relief efforts or raise funds for NGOs involved in disaster management; Support disaster relief organisations and raise awareness of the need for linkages between disaster relief, rehabilitation and development; Advocate for vulnerable groups, such as the elderly or persons with disabilities, raising awareness of their needs at times of disaster. Actively engage in relief efforts, usually by volunteering to provide rehabilitation to survivors.
Seek advice and training; Improve your professional expertise of praticing in an emergency situation by: o joining the global health special interest group in your physical therapy organisation if there is one; o joining a global campaign such as the One Million Safe Schools and Hospitals Initiative, which may provide opportunities to make people aware about safe schools and hospitals, to become a leader in emergency and disaster preparedness, or to become an advocate for risk reduction; o applying to join a pool of volunteers; o participating in online discussions to raise your own personal awareness; o volunteering at the local office of an NGO; Learn another language: Medicine Sans Frontires recommends French and/or English, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, 1 Chinese, Swahili or Portuguese ; Undertake courses provided by governmental and non-governmental agencies; Establish and maintain appropriate physical activity levels;Get the health checks and up-to-date vaccinations you might require.
Ensure you have had the necessary health checks and vaccinations; Write a will and prepare your affairs for the time of your absence, banking, bills memberships, registration etc.; Attend information sessions provided by government and non-government agencies; Learn about the physical, cultural and political context of the disaster zone. Prepare for your return: consider your friends and family and plan for your career post mission. Maintain professional and personal contacts and your professional skills.
Work with the community to plan and implement rehabilitation activities based on an assessment of unmet needs and available resources; Deliver rehabilitation services; If there is no professional organisation of physical therapists, work with local physical therapists to build a representative group with the potential to become a WCPT member; Liaise with WCPT secretariat and regional officer for support in this endeavour. Advocate, with the physical therapy professional association, for physical therapy services for those affected by disaster and assess the need for physical therapy services; Work with the local professional association and government to develop physical therapist professional entry-level education programmes; Deliver continuing professional development courses; Work with the local professional association to develop education for physical therapy assistants and CBR workers, if appropriate; Work with the community in planning and implementing the physical therapy and rehabilitation elements of emergency preparedness plans.
The United Nations and its organisations The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies The International Committee of the Red Cross International non-governmental agencies National organisations
National organisations
Most nations have a national disaster management plan. National disaster management plans are aligned to the most commonly experienced disasters in that country or region and the resources available. Look at the disaster management plan for your country and region. Links to the national disaster management plan for Australia and Indiaare provided here as examples.
WCPT resources Disaster prevention Disaster preparedness Disaster relief Disaster recovery Information sources
WCPT resources
Policies o o o o o o
Policy statement: Disaster management and related policies: Policy statement: Ethical responsibilities Policy statement: Health human resources Policy statement: Primary health care Policy statement: Relationships with other health professionals Policy statement: Torture Policy statement: Description of physical therapy
The Center for International Disaster Information maintains a database for volunteers. The USAID medical volunteer database also includes volunteers other than physicians. Voluntary Service Overseas International regularly recruits physical therapists to serve in a variety of development situations. This organisation partners with several governmental agencies responsible for emergency relief. Health Volunteers Overseas has a page dedicated to volunteer positions for physical therapists and a volunteer toolkit with the information and tools to help prepare volunteers for their assignment. The International Federation of Cross and Red Crescent Societies recruits volunteers for local community development projects. Red Cross or Red Crescent Societies are in many countries of the world. Contact your local office to volunteer. The following are involved in helping children in emergency situations:
A new edition of 'Facts for Life' has been published jointly by UNICEF and WHO in collaboration with other UN agencies and the World Bank. This delivers essential information on how to prevent child and maternal deaths, diseases, injuries and violence and is designed to educate those who have influence over the safety and wellbeing of children. The International Foster Care Organisation has produced guiding principles on the care and protection of unaccompanied and separated children in emergency-affected countries. First developed in response to the tsunami in Asia in 2004, they have been updated in 2010 for the situation in Haiti following the earthquake. The document represents the views of the following agencies: the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the International Rescue Committee (IRC), Save the Children UK (SCUK), the United Nations Childrens Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and World Vision International (WVI).
The UN development group together with the World Bank has published a range of documents on post conflict needs assessment. The purpose of the Guidance is to inform strategic decision-makers (national and international) of the purpose, scope and benefits of a common platform for recovery planning. The following resources are aimed at community development:
Making it work (March 2009) is an international multi-stakeholder initiative aimed towards effective implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The manual is available in English, French and Spanish. The UN Development Group Toolkit is a repository of guidance, lessons learned and tools to support development. The following resources are aimed at mainstreaming disability:
A guidance paper for an inclusive local development policy by Charlotte Axelsson (2009) is available in English and French. This guidance paper aims to provide concrete directions for mainstreaming disability in local development. The following resources are aimed at recruiting rehabilitation volunteers: Voluntary Service Overseas is a UK based non-governmental organisation that recruits volunteer physical therapists to take part in recovery and development programmes in low-income countries. The following resources are aimed at pandemic disasters and communicable disease control: The WHO programme on communicable disease control in humanitarian emergencies produces a range of publications including A field manual - Communicable disease control in emergencies and
Information sources
The following sources may also provide needed information for those in disaster management:
The Community Tool Box is a global resource for free information on essential skills for building healthy communities. Promoting community health and development by connecting people, ideas and resources. This resource is also available in Spanish: Caja de Herramientas Comunitarias - Recursos prcticos ReliefWeb, administered by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), is an on-line gateway to information (documents and maps) on humanitarian emergencies and disasters. Designed specifically to assist the international humanitarian community in effective delivery of emergency assistance, it provides information as events unfold, while emphasising the coverage of "forgotten emergencies". Source is an international information support centre designed to strengthen the management, use and impact of information on health and disability. Source has a unique collection of around 25,000 health and disability information resources. These include books, journals, manuals, reports, posters, CD-ROMs, websites and organisations. Many materials are from developing countries. The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) has developed a listserve for libraries and public health workforce that facilitates the sharing of information on disaster preparedness topics. It also provides archives from previous discussions. Knowledge for Health has gathered key resources from a range of UN agencies into one place. The Haiti Relief Toolkit, though specifically developed in response to the earthquake in Haiti in February 2010, contains information of more general relevance. It contains technical and practical information that will help health workers respond to earthquake relief efforts, covering the vital sectors in emergencies - health, water, sanitation, food, security and shelter - and key field activities supporting the operations, such as logistics. A selection of systematic reviews and their conclusions is available from the Cochrane Library on Healthcare topics that aid agencies have reported as important. These are signposts to reviews that might be helpful to decision-makers. All countries in Latin America and the Caribbean can access the Cochrane Library for free via the Virtual Health Library (in English, Spanish or Portuguese).
References
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (2008). OCHA Glossary of Humanitarian TErms 2008. Accessed 12-04-10 UN High Commissioner for Refugees (2006). UNHCR Master Glossary of Terms. Accessed 12-04-10 International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (2009) UNISDR Terminology on Disaster Risk Reduction. Accessed 12-04-10
DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Submitted to: Mrs. Agnes Sagaral NSTP Professor Submitted by: Rochdale Jayme BSPSYCH 1B