Case Studies into disasters

Reference:

Coles, J. B., Zhuang, J., & Yates, J. (2012). Case study in disaster relief: A descriptive analysis of agency partnerships in the aftermath of the January 12th, 2010 Haitian earthquake. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, 46(1), 67-77. doi:10.1016/j.seps.2011.08.002

Theme: By working together, agencies that respond to disasters can make a real difference in the country affected.

Summary:

• A case study after the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake in Hati
• A summary of the disaster relief efforts by 18 different relief agencies
• Paper reviews the formation and maintenance of partnerships after the earthquake
• The paper talks about the cooperation and understanding that were the result of the agencies responding to the call for help
•  Findings from the agencies interviewed found that the agencies that had no partnerships or presence in Haiti prior to the earthquake were the ones who built new clinics, orphanages, and schools.
• Agencies were more likely to develop some new partnerships because of new contacts rather than old, non active contacts.
• This paper discovered the partnerships between local and international agencies, was less stable than partnerships between international agencies
•  This paper wanted to increase understanding of the research and how it could be applied in disaster relief networks.
• This paper wanted to provide a new perspective into how agencies work together.

Application to the lesson topic: After a significant disaster, it is important to evaluate how emergency responses responded and acted. After the analysis, things may be put into place to help in the next disaster.

Application to emergency services: These studies may help emergency personnel in other parts of the world lean what works and doesn't in an emergency situation. These studies may help emergency personnel save lives. 

Integrating Mental Health Services into Humanitarian Relief Responses to Social Emergencies, Disasters, and Conflicts

Justin E. Ross

Integrating Mental Health Services into Humanitarian Relief Responses to Social Emergencies, Disasters, and Conflicts

Reference: Henley, R., Marshall, R., & Vetter, S. (2011). Integrating Mental Health Services into Humanitarian Relief Responses to Social Emergencies, Disasters, and Conflicts: A Case Study. Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research, 38(1), 132-141. doi:10.1007/s11414-010-9214-y

Theme: The development of mental and behavioral health focused response efforts following disasters.

Summary:

·         There were early programs built around the September 11^th attacks that put behavioral health screening surrounding disasters into effect for the first time.  Subsequent similar programs followed soon there after

·         The hope is that there will be increased collaboration between international mental health and disaster relief communities too, increasing the understanding of the correlation between disasters and the need for mental health services.

·         There is an increased push for non-mental health professionals to be trained to provide the services necessary for people following disasters.  Some of this comes in the administration of triage.

·         Where as in the United States there is some stigmatism to providing mental health services, in other cultures there is a huge stigmatism and therefore there are great hurdles to overcome to implement these programs.

Application to the lesson topic:  This article relates directly to crisis uncertainty impacts on vulnerable populations and offers suggestions for how communications can help to deal with uncertainty.  This is especially true as how communications surrounding mental and behavioral health issues can be addressed during a disaster.

Application to emergency services: Too often emergency service organizations focus only on life safety issues and pay no mind to mental and behavioral health issues.  This article should be read by all emergency management professionals.  This topic needs to be on the minds of all people that are charged with developing response resources for a community.  The mental fragile are some of the most vulnerable populations we serve.

 

Justin E. Ross
j_elliotte@yahoo.com
360 609-2839

Reading Summary 12- Randy Rask- Case Study on 2010 Haitian Earthquake

Randy Rask

Lesson 12 Reading Summary

 

Reference:  Coles J., Zhuang J., Yates J. (March 2012) Case study in Disaster Relief: A Descriptive Analysis of Agency Partnerships in the Aftermath of the January 12th, 2010 Haitian Earthquake. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. Mar2012, Vol. 46 Issue 1, p67-77. 11p.

Theme:  This study analyzes the recovery and response of the January 12, 2012 Haitian earthquake through several different agencies and how these agencies cooperated with each other. 

Summary:

·         Research is based on 18 different agencies that responded to the earthquake. 

·         It studies how they cooperated, communicated, and understood each other during response.

·         Up to 250,000 people were presumed dead by the earthquake that measured 7.0 on the Richter scale.

·         Many different agencies had many different goals when trying to deal with the response. 

·         Research shows that data was pretty well shared among the different agencies. 

·         Partnerships between different agencies also seemed to be fairly good. 

·         4 partnerships were broken down in the study.  There are non-government organizations, faith based organizations, local agencies, and other agencies.

·         Partnerships were studied between all of these and dynamics turned out to be decent between them.

·         Research also showed that each agency had an understanding of what their job was in recovery.  Some agencies were covering demolition/construction.  Other recovery types were housing, medical, food distribution, and funding.  Each agency seemed to know what their duty was making things run more smoothly.

·         Things were not perfect however.  A lack of prior communication before response as well as a lack of trust between agencies seems to hinder the response efforts in some ways.

·         Haiti has does not have a governmental support for disasters such as this so inter-agency cooperation is even more important. 

Application to Lesson Topic:

      This particular case study does not directly apply to the lesson topic this week.  This week's topic was more about media impacts on different types of disasters.  It does relate though.  Cooperation between different agencies is important in any disaster.  Media is one of these agencies that needs to be aware of and cooperated with.  This will help all of the different agencies to have a more productive response during a disaster.  If we are not working together, then we get in each other's way and response efforts are less effective.

Application to Emergency Services:

      This applies to emergency services perfectly.  Although some of the agencies that were interviewed are not in the emergency service field but rather more of the relief efforts, it is still important that everybody is on the same page and cooperating.  Sharing information between all the different agencies helps to paint a clearer picture of what is happening, what still needs to be done, and who is going to do what.  Without cooperation, the scene of a disaster will be a cluster of a bunch of different agencies getting in each other's way and not solving problems in a timely manner. 

Reading Summary 11 - Seeing Clearly. Technical Communication

Reference: Hayhoe, G. F. (2005, November). Seeing Clearly. Technical Communication. pp. 415-416. Retrieved on November 30, 2013 from http://ezproxy.uvu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=18798070&site=ehost-live

Theme: The author discusses the failure and lack of communication in evacuation plans as well as relief efforts during Hurricane Katrina.  He focuses on three points: Response of U.S. citizens to the aftermath of the disaster, Tasks of individuals in response to crisis, Involvement in disaster training programs of risk communication.

Summary:

·         The large part of the problem with the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina was faulty communication.

·         Notification and evacuation plans had not been executed.

·         The evacuation plans were inadequate to the magnitude of the disaster.

·         Rescue and relief efforts failed in all levels of government, again as a direct result of poor communication.

·         Failure to plan adequately or communicate the plan successfully makes a devastating natural event more destructive.

·         The can be no excuse for the cause of such suffering so needlessly because of inadequate preparation and poor communication.

·         The author list three important tasks that technical communicators in any country should do to keep their citizens safe.

·         Be as generous as possible-as human beings we should respond to a crisis as generously as we can with donations of money, food, clothing, blood, medical supplies and time.

·         Become part of the solution-It is a civic responsibility not political, to improve the level of preparedness.  Technical communicators should be included in the massive amounts of government and charitable money for they are the teams charged with preparing, evaluating, and disseminating future disaster plans.

·         Learn what we need to know to help solve the problem-We need to learn to think strategically about the roles technical communicators can have in our communities and various levels of government through disaster or risk communication.

·         We need to learn how to teach our fellow citizens how to respond to catastrophic events.

·         We need to ensure that those communications are accessible to all including children, the elderly and disabled, those with hearing and vision loss, and those that speak other languages.

·         We can help prevent future misery by making sure that technical communicators play a key role in creating and communicating disaster plans.

·         We should see clearly that we can't afford to do anything less.

Application to the Lesson Topic:

This article goes right along with the lesson topic, stressing the importance of effective planning and preparedness for disasters.  The author points out how much worse hurricane Katrina was as a result of poor communication in a crisis.

Application to Emergency Services:

Preparation along with communication is the most important thing that can be done in the field of Emergency services.  If we fail to plan, we plan to fail.  If we don't communicate our plan, our plan ceases to exist.

'Lessons learned': A comparative case study analysis of an emergency department response to two burns disasters

Joseph Galbraith
 

Lesson 12 Reading Summary

 

Reference: Little, M., Cooper, J., Gope, M., Hahn, K., Kibar, C., McCoubrie, D., & ... Leclercq, M. (2012). 'Lessons learned': A comparative case study analysis of an emergency department response to two burns disasters. Emergency Medicine Australasia, 24(4), 420-429. doi:10.1111/j.1742-6723.2012.01578.x

 

Theme: The Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) in Australia was faced with two mass casualties' incidents within seven years of each other.  This case study reviews how lessons learned from the first incident affected the second one.

 Summary:

• A suicide bomb detonated in Bali in 2002, sending 28 people to the RPH.  In 2009 the RPH received 23 patients with significant burns as a result of an explosion on board a foreign vessel in the remote Ashmore Reef Islands.

•A Disaster response plan was implemented along with regular training.  Exercises at the department and hospital level were conducted regularly to maintain readiness.

•During the bombing incident much time was spent communicating through individual phone calls.  A Short Message System (SMS) was implemented to send out messages with common language that was understood by all.  This freed workers and allowed them to spend more time on treatment.

• The Australian Medical Assistance Team (AUSMAT) was created for the purpose of responding to a mass casualty incident.  They help treat burn/disaster victims on short notice.  They are deployed by the state.

• Identification markings were created to easily recognize treatment team members.  The large amount of people that occupied the ED at the time of the bombing caused un-needed confusion.

• Security and media relations procedures were created to help keep patients and families safe and secure.

• This case study proved highly beneficial to the profession of patient care and emergency management because it provided a rare view of how improvements were implemented after an emergency.  Then a similar incident occurred with those changes in place and the results were monitored and recorded with quantitative information that proved success.

Application to the lesson topic:

A definite improvement on how the hospital dealt with the media was noted in this case study.  The patients were able to be better protected as a result.

 

Application to emergency services:

Case studies like this are very rare because disasters are so unpredictable and sporadic.  It is very important that we as emergency managers are able to review these studies and learn from them.  It is also important that as we experience disasters that we contribute to the education of others by providing data back to the profession via forums, journals, conferences, etc.

 

Lesson 12 reading summary: case studies and disaster

James Delli Gatti

Civil Defense, Communication, and the Politics of Disaster: An American Case Study

Reference: Giles, H., & Marlow, M. (2007). Civil Defense, Communication, and the Politics of Disaster: An American Case Study. Conference Papers -- International Communication Association, 1-37.

Theme: case studies and disaster

Summary:

• If people personalize the risk ("it will happen to me") they will be more likely to act in ways to sustain self-interest. However, inquiry has suggested that personalization may contribute to under-responses and over-responses during emergency situations.
• Communication about disasters and crises are typically categorized as one of two types, namely, hazard and risk communication.

• Hazard communication involves disseminating information to individuals and collectives regarding risks in the immediate environment, such as hurricanes or hazardous areas
• Risk or warning communication deals with interactions during impending emergencies, such as an oncoming tornado or an expected terrorist attack.
• For an individual to make an optimum behavioral decision, they must hear, understand, believe, personalize, and respond to emergency messages.
• Once an emergency message has been heard, it must be understood, in terms of attaching personal meaning or relevance to the information.
• Variations in perceptions of terminology may also determine risk processing and behavior.
• Research has found that individuals vary in their tendency to perceive a risk warning as accurate and credible.

 

Application to the lesson topic: This article covers the abilities and perceptions of people with various disabilities or language barriers to receive, understand, and take action on emergency information that is being disseminated;

"Overall, when an individual has acquired emergency information, understood the message, assessed their belief, and determined personalized or group risk level, generalized perceptions of risk vulnerability result in situation appropriate behavior."

I think that the methods employed as well as the context of the language used will ultimately serve to persuade the general public to behave in a certain manner creating calm or creating chaos.

 

Application to emergency services: Not only is it important for your message to be disseminated to the general public in the various languages used by the public taking into account people with disabilities, but it is also vitally important that your message demonstrate confidence in your abilities to mitigate the disaster at hand. Be sensitive to the wording used in your reports and the tone that this message is disseminated. These factors can have a huge effect on your information creating public calm or a public frenzy.