Planning and Preparedness for Disasters - Assignment Example

Activity 1.1 a) TO THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Due to our humanitarian efforts, I am writing on the behalf of our community disaster management team requesting your participation in disaster management. In most cases, medical departments do great jobs of rescuing disaster victims. It is important to do proper health planning because it is the first response (module, p8). Your involvement in our initiatives will provide first hand access to medical facilities at local level. This will overcome the challenge of overreliance on external medical sources (module 1, p13). The initiative will also benefit the hospital since your staff will have to do extra work beyond their scope thus improving their skills. The plan is to integrate national and international efforts in managing the disasters. The implication is that your hospital will get international exposure and increase its competiveness. Moreover, local medical intervention through qualified clinical physicians helps in reducing environmental degradation in the event of chemical disasters. Local hospital participation not only rescues lives but also the environment. b) Five impediment of a disaster plan for a health service and how to overcome them Change of behaviour is a major impediment because disasters rarely occur (module 1, p.9). People have priorities and disaster planning rarely cross their minds. However, disasters are untimely and proper planning helps ensure good preparedness for the situation. On the other hand, people forget about disasters and follow-up programmes like training are vital. Relevant authorities can set anniversary dates that will remind the community of the event. Hospitals are overwhelmed and harnessing resources for disaster management becomes a difficult task. The hospital must choose between using its resources to meet daily hospital needs and assigning others to disaster response. The government has an obligation to assign more resources to the hospitals for proper planning and preparedness. Finally, planning needs qualified personnel. When hospitals do not have properly trained staff, planning and preparedness for disasters becomes. c) Developing a plan for a rural region (Australian local govern) The local government plans, ensures local response and puts up local level volunteer infrastructure. There are two groups involved at the local level; local disaster management group and local government disaster coordination centre (module 1, p. 16). All local or district hospital officers must take part in the process since they equip the region medically. Local or county government officials coordinate and provide resources necessary for disaster management. The local community or the rural population as part of the stakeholders in the plan provide useful information like terrain of the region and accessibility. d) Five keys to effective disaster plan implementation Normal system functioning that requires hospital systems ensures effective respond to pressures. The planning team must aim at guiding existing systems and not introducing new systems (module 1, p10). Secondly, the implementation process must engage key personnel because it ensures commitment and relevance of the implementation process. Thirdly, the management must build the plan from general principles so as to avoid reliance on specific details. In addition, effective plan implementation requires collective approach through training that integrates all stakeholders. This ensures that stakeholders get to know each other and eventual implementation becomes relevant and effective. Finally, a proper health planning influences implementation of the overall pan through familiar planning activities. e) The role of government in disaster Government makes relevant policies and provides emergency services through policies as well as legislative framework (module 1, p. 14). The federal government also coordinates planning, response and preparation through funding. On the other hand, the state invests its resources in mitigating disasters and manages politics responsible for monitoring the situation. Activity 1.2 The key components of the emergency health management system in Australia The components of emergency health include first aid or bystander care and primary care like community health services (World Health Organisation, 2005). For serious cases, hospitals emergencies and specialists are available. Countries have different jurisdictions of dealing with health emergencies. In Australia, Department of Human Services (DHS) coordinates all emergency cases. The department manages pre-hospital casualties, hospital emergencies and public health responses. Recovery and community support originates from recovery plans by the state and the Regional Emergency Recovery Plans (Emergency (Management Australia, 2008). This department is Australia’s main agency that ensures State Recovery Coordination (Emergency Management Australia, 2008) In Australia, the components of emergency health management include ambulance services, aero-medical retrieval, emergency departments and transfer services (Emergency Management Australia, 2008). In adopting these components, Queensland adopts Qld Emergency Medical System (QEMS) controlled by QEMS Clinical Coordination Centre. The country also has Department of Community Safety which has four divisions. Of the four divisions, only three of them take part in disaster management. The divisions are Emergency Management Queensland (EMQ), Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) and Queensland Fire Rescue Service. DCs prepare and respond to disasters that have short-term consequences. EMQ in particular coordinates and supports the state in the health emergency response. On the other hand, Queensland Police Service (QPS) gives a hand in disaster management since the recent legislation reforms gives the department a role in disaster response. The police form an important part of EMS. Queensland involves the branches of government and the community. b) Identify Key strategies necessary to ensure health system preparedness. The government must build capacity that ensures that the staffs are fully prepared to take part in rescue mission (World Health Organisation, 2005). Training and education is vital in preparing the staff for disasters. Exercise is very important as well to test how staff can work together on team. It is important to consider the location of the area to the closest hospital. Other considerations on the building include the fencing that affects its accessibility. Preparedness also entails availability of the right equipment for the disaster. First aid tool kit must contain all the necessary tools that disasters require. The population hit by the disaster require support rather than medical services; they also required food and water, safe place, and psychological assistance. They should be available and high in energy content since they require it to get the strength of recovery. It is important to put in place integrated planning. When planning for swine flu management for instance, the local and national hospitals must take part in the process. The other key strategy is vaccination since they prevent outbreaks (World Health Organisation, 2005). The management strategies buy time until professionals develop a new vaccine. The other strategy is development of anti-viral since viruses are not curable. When viruses like H1N1 developed, the international medics moved fast to develop anti-virus that reduced the effects and spreading of the virus. Activity 1.3 a) Key issues to be addressed in each phase of a mass casualty burn disaster in Australia The first phase is the surge phase and the responsibility lies with the area jurisdiction (Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, 2004). The first issue is pre-hospital consideration (management) like control, command, communication, co-ordination. Two critical issues include pre-hospital and hospital management. Considerations include vital care infrastructure and ability to improve the service with regards to staff, beds, ventilation, blood, pharmaceuticals and other medical requirements. The second phase is (redistribution phase, PHASE 2) that requires patient redistribution across Australia as well as New Zealand (Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, 2004). Main issues are work force sustainability, secondary transport, severe burn beds, critical care management, rehabilitation, supplies maintenance and mental health. b) Should there be increased public awareness of Chemical Warfare Agents? Explain why or why not. There should be increased public awareness on this issue because Chemical Warfare could cause death or widespread disease. Chemical attacked could happen in any time by terror or accidently (module 3, p 72). Public awareness helps reduce casualties and identification of these chemical agents. Australian government has put in place measures that integrate the nation in general (module 3, p 4). Public awareness will help the government to build effective local counter-terrorism measures. Public health professionals awareness is also part of public awareness thus it enables for effectively medical response to communities in the event of chemical attack. The knowledge helps them to identify symptoms and verify symptoms of these attacks. c) The Big Day Out concerts The normal health risk of the population is an important aspect. This means that a large crowd increases the frequencies of heart attack and asthma attacks. Characteristic of the population also influences risk occurrences. For example, a crowd of older population is prone to attacks than a young crowd. On the other hand, a big gathering experiences exposure to health risks. For instance transport risks and injuries from crowd movement. The other aspect is that big concert event evokes sources of risks. Air chows like the big concert leads to catastrophic injuries to the crowd. Equally vital is amplification of health risks at big concerts. This results from water, foods and waste disposal especially when the concert takes place in open air (Module 3 p44). d) Briefly Examine the Swine Flu Pandemic and five key lessons for pandemic preparedness. The pandemic broke out in Mexico and H1N1 virus found in pigs caused the flu. The pandemic also affected Canada, New Zealand and Spain (module 3, p56). Scientists projected that the condition is still mutating in victims. However, access to greater health care helped reduce the impacts of the epidemic. From this disaster, the affected countries learned a good lesson with regard to disaster preparedness. Firstly, the relevant authorities can learn how to reduce human exposure to such pandemics (module 3, p63). Early prevention and management of these pandemics depends on limited human contact or exposure. This is achievable by ensuring public health initiatives and normal hygiene. Quarantine applies to serious conditions. On the other hand, the disaster management team must strengthen early warning signs (module3, p63). Surveillance and communicable disease report structures ensure early warnings through laboratory reports. Emergency Department enhances monitoring timeliness through medical data analysis to anticipate disease outbreaks. Public education as well as awareness is detrimental to contain the disease outbreak. The disease outbreak management can be enhanced through international coordination of global science and research (module 3, p63). These efforts should ensure development of more vaccines and antiviral agents because they results in greater co-operation and reliability. Moreover, the response team must rapidly isolate the victims so as to reduce spread out. Finally, building capacity of coping with the disease is a factor to consider (module 3, p65). Activity 1.4 a) The key components of a resilient community. Firstly, the community experiences social breakdown that comes from numerous stereotypes of the community behaviour. The community experiences chaos, normally depicted in the media where individuals panic, becomes irrational and eventually loose concerns for their fellows. The community also has hesitancy to evacuate (module 4, p). Most people are unwilling to move out before the disaster is over because they must confirm the situation in the media networks. Control and Command efforts are also key components of the resilience community since the community functions well under stress. There is also misconception of panic (module 4, p). The population may be in a state of panic and it is important to have authorities that controls the crowd and coordinates all the relief initiatives. On the other hand, communication networks become more popular in calamities since the public will be calling to search for their loved ones. Hospitals, Red Cross agency and law-enforcement sector provide the necessary information that the public demands. Most important is casualty transport that the rescuers and governments provide in form of ambulance services and trucks carrying relief food (Prosser & Peters, 2010). b) Five key strategies whereby you may improve the resilience of a community Firstly, it is important to understand the community strike by the disaster (Prosser & Peters 2010). This entails looking at their capacities and strengths through past experiences. The personnel involved in recovery activities must identify and respect differences thereby regarding their culture with high esteem. Quick support to the community and should be not discriminative. On the other hand, the rescuers can use community led-approaches because it centres the community and creates room for participating in individual recovery. This strategy addresses needs of the affected community thus allowing families, individuals and communities manage recoveries. Proper communication equally helps the community to recover since good cooperation from the public helps these efforts. This strategy involves frequent discussions and keeps the public informed. Win case of severe disasters like wars, countries may use travel restrictions as a strategy to help contain the disaster. For instance, quarantine strategy is vital for influenza cases like swine flu. c) Lessons learned from the deployment of Foreign Field Hospitals In disasters The first lesson is on the essential requirements of medical care for the first 48 hours (WHO-POHA, 2003). Deployment should be 24 hours after the disaster and it should be sufficient. This ensures urgent response and minimal support from the affected country. However, there are some issues that deployment of field hospital clarifies before rescue missions. For instance it should clarify when to start assessing the victims, how sufficient it is prepared in terms of facilities and the time it will stay in the region. On the other hand, FFH lesson helps in managing health follow up interventions (WHO-POHA, 2003). Equipments that these hospitals use must be sustainable to the local hospitals. In addition to these, the hospitals help in identifying criteria for accepting donations. References Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, (2004). Ausburnplan Strategy Paper - Australian Mass Casualty Burn Disaster Plan. Emergency Management Australia. (2008, September 2008). Australian Government Disaster Response Plan. Retrieved from http://www.royalcommission.vic.gov.au/getdoc/36fbb2ce-ffc4-4f67-98b5-9d87a05cdd38/ Evans J. (2010). Mapping the vulnerability of older persons to disasters. International Journal of Older People Nursing, 5(1), 63-70. Greenwood, J. E., & Mackie, I. P. (2009). Factors for consideration in developing a plan to cope with mass burn casualties. ANZ journal of surgery, 79(9), 581-583. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19895508. Prosser, B., & Peters, C. (2010). Directions in disaster resilience policy. Australian Journal of Emergency Management, 25(3), 8-11. Retrieved from: http://search.informit.com.au/fullText;dn=308339389994714;res=IELHSS Unit study guide; Disaster health planning and preparedness, modules 1-4. World Health Organisation. (2005). WHO global influenza preparedness plan. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/influenza/WHO_CDS_CSR_GIP_2005_5.pdf WHO (World Health Organisation)-POHA (Pan American Health Organisation), (2003). WHO-PAHO Guidelines for the Use of Foreign Field Hospitals in the Aftermath of Sudden-Impact Disasters. Retrieved from: www.paho.org/disaster. Read More