Good Shield for Good Yield

Disaster management cycle can be
decomposed into 4 stages: prevention and mitigation, preparedness, response and rehabilitation.

Prevention and mitigation deal with the proactive social component of emergencies. This includes mechanisms and regulations that lessen the vulnerability of the population and enhance their resilience toward disaster.

"Preparedness"   

Putting the response mechanisms in place to counter factors that a community has not been able to mitigate. The planning and organization of emergency preparedness should be a task for a multidisciplinary planning team involved at the community level, and one which should be integrated into hazard assessment, risk reduction and emergency response.

In a developing country like Indonesia, the management of casualties it is now well recognized that medical teams from outside may take at least 3 days to arrive at the scene of disaster. As most preventable deaths occur within the first 24 to 48 hours, such assistance will arrive too late:( Thus it is at the local level that emergency preparedness should be focused, so that the community itself has the means to begin rescue and relief actions immediately after an event.

Part of the plans which I can include in the preparedness lists are:

1. Information and communication needs 

• Providing adequate information to the public (eg. provide early warning system for evacuation)
  
• Communications systems between the different emergency services at the local and national levels
• Stockpiling emergency food and water supplies in households 

2. Command and control and emergency communications 

The designation of the emergency service in charge, and the constitution of a disaster coordinating team.

 

3. The hospital major incident plan 

Hospitals should have specific plans for dealing with a sudden large influx of casualties, and there should be provision for a hospital flying squad to go to the scene to work with search and rescue teams in extricating trapped victims or to undertake field triage of large numbers of casualties.There's a compulsory need for a hospital in the disaster- prone area to set up a Contingency Plan. 

Contingency plan refers to the alternative plan of the hospitals in case their primary plan isn’t working that well i.e. “Plan B” for any possibilities of handling matters. Contingency plan is a realistic method. Those personnel or individuals involved were already being trained and this plan has its respected evaluation time to time. 

4. Emergency equipment 

5. Emergency response plans

• The separate emergency services and the health care sector, including public health, occupational health and environmental health practitioners.
• The management of evacuees, the location of evacuation centers and the appropriate preventive health measure (Eg. staff to do the sanitary jobs).
• The need for emergency stress management to prevent stress disorders in victims and emergency workers.

6. Training and education

This is very important as besides their knowledge and certified competency, medical staff and other health care professionals at the hospital and primary care level are similar to the community of the  disaster- prone area of which they are likely to be unfamiliar with working in disasters.

 

"Response"

Response includes the provision of assistance, support or intervention during or immediate actions after a disaster to meet the life preservation and basic subsistence needs of those people affected. This can be in the form of an immediate, short-term, or protracted duration. 

This takes place during the disaster. It includes the principles of disaster management, clinical emergency during disaster, and also includes:

• rescue and evacuation of casualties and property 
• fulfillment of basic needs 
• protection 
• management of refugee 
• rescue, and recovery of infrastructure and facilities

In emergency, according to PAHO- WHO (2001), LOGISTICS are required to support the organization and implementation or response operation in order to ensure their timelines and efficiency.

Logistics is the management of the flow of the goods, information and other resources in a repair cycle between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet the requirements of customers (Wikipedia), of which in a disaster; the requirements of the victims or the scene.

"Recovery"

It’s a post- disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction of which the process, policies and procedures related to preparing for recovery or continuation of technology infrastructure critical to an organization after a natural or human induced disaster take place.

Recovery process is influenced by how much the hazard causes impacts to occur. While the impacts depends on the vulnerability of the community and the area itself. Mitigation (preparedness) is the source of capacity. A better n higher preparedness, the higher the capacity.

 DISASTER RISK REDUCTION

 

 

Briefly explained, risks can be reduced when capacity increases (i.e more preventive efforts are done or improved).

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is formula of mitigating impacts of disaster through prescriptions of preventive measure as the capacity.

Click to read the book :)

Indonesia's government’s commitment in disaster management based on this DRR is described in this book: NATIONAL ACTION PLAN FOR DISASTER RISK REDUCTION.

You can also read books of  countries which also plan for DRR at Strategic National Action Plan (SNAP) for Disaster Risk Reduction website.

Semoga Bermanfaat :)

*Hopefully useful* 

Referring to Carter (1991), the decomposition of disaster management into 4 stages does not mean that activities during a disaster are divided from each other and separated in time. Often they overlap. (cited at Russell,2005)

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References:

• "Preparedness, Response, and Recovery", lecture by dr. Belladona, M. Kes
• "Logistic Management Support", lecture by dr. Sulanto Saleh- Danu, Sp. FK
• "Earthquake in Yogyakarta (Natural disaster)", GROUP 8 TUTORIAL SESSIONS (Week 6)
• "Multiprofessional Team in Disaster Management", Panel Discussion.