Workbook Disaster Health Management

Activity 1.1:
Examine the Annual Statistical Report for 2012 from the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), 2012.
Which is accessible at:
http://www.cred.be/sites/default/files/ADSR_2013.pdf
1. Identify the top five disaster types

2. Identify the top five countries most affected

Activity 1.2:
1. Develop for yourself a working definition of disasters from a community perspective.
2- Consider three recent events and explain why they meet this definition of a disaster, How has this understanding changed over the last 20 years and how would it be different in a resource poor society?
Activity 1.3:
1.What do you understand by the term “Disasters are a social phenomenon”?
2.How has this understanding changed over the last 20 years and how would it be different in a resource poor society?

Activity 1.4:
1. Consider the outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease occurred in 2014. Do you consider this was a disaster? Explain how this may be considered a disaster and how it may not.
2. List and explain the factors that you consider influence an event being considered a disaster.

Activity 1.5:
1. Are disasters increasing or is it just better reporting.
2. Identify the factors that may be increasing the rates of disasters and those that may be reducing them?

Activity 1.6:
• Briefly detail the normal psychological reaction to the loss and grief associated with disasters.

Activity 1.7:
• List the core principles of disaster management and for each write a very brief description.

Activity 1.8:
1. Identify the key legislative provisions that are relevant to disaster management in a jurisdiction with which you are familiar.
2. Where would a disaster management find the legal protection necessary to order a community evaluation in the threat of a flood?

Activity 1.9
• External assistance will always be helpful and should be welcomed. Provide a brief commentary on this proposition.

Activity 2.1:
• Create a table which identifies the top five risks for your community (where you live), assesses the risk and identified the management strategies designed to mitigate the risk.

Activity 2.2
1. Produce a table which summarises strategies that may prevent or mitigate the impact of bushfires on a rural community. In doing so consider the framework of host, agent, environment and society.
2.Consider the legal, economic, physical and social strategies that may help mitigate the effect of a tsunami on a coastal region.
3.Consider the cost and benefits of imposing lower speed limits on a highway.

Activity 2.3
a) Construct a brief one page draft letter to the Chief Executive Officer of a local hospital seeking their involvement in the development of a community disaster plan and explaining the importance and value of their involvement.
b) Describe five impediments that may be experienced in the development of a disaster plan for a health service and explain how may those impediments be overcome?
c) If you were developing a plan for a rural region, who would you want on your planning committee and why? In identifying who, do not identify individuals by name but rather their roles.
d) Briefly discuss five keys to effective disaster plan implementation. In your answer incorporate factors that contribute to plans failing to be implemented and how you will avoid this occurring.
e) Briefly identify and discuss the role of government in disaster management.
Activity2.4:
a) Non routine risks are a particular concern as they are low probability but high impact. Discuss briefly strategies that you would use to manage non-routine risks in your community.
b) Identify five key organisations involved in disaster management in the community in which you normally live and discuss their roles normally and during a disaster.
c) Preparedness involves more than planning. Identify strategies otherthan planning that are essential to effective community resilience and preparedness.

Activity3.1:
a. Write a brief paragraph summarising the components of the Incident Command System.
b. Examine the mass gathering incident that occurred at the Hajj in January 2006. Identify improvements that have occurred in preparedness since that event.
c. What are the principles that should govern the deployment of foreign medical teams to a disaster in an underdeveloped nation?
Activity 4.1
1.Identify and briefly describe the key strategies required for community recovery.
2.Identify the systems and structures required to help a community recover from a disaster