Disaster Management and Public Health

This assignment delves into the multifaceted aspects of disaster management and public health. It covers first aid principles, strategies for managing children in disasters, public health responses during emergencies, and the specific health needs of refugees and asylum seekers. The document examines the psychological impacts of disasters, emphasizing the importance of resilience-building strategies and effective counseling. Lastly, it highlights the key aspects of providing healthcare and support to displaced populations.

Week wise Journal Entry

Table of Contents
Week 1 Disaster Concepts...............................................................................................................3
Week 2 PSYCHOSOCIAL ASPECTS OF DISASTERS: VULNERABLE GROUPS..................4
Week 3 Disaster Management Frameworks....................................................................................7
Week 4 Case Studies.....................................................................................................................11
Week 5 International Case Studies................................................................................................12
Week 6 Psychosocial Management in Disasters...........................................................................13
Week 7 Public Health and Refugee Health...................................................................................14

Week 1 Disaster Concepts
Topic 1
I have experienced one of the biggest disasters of the 21 Century that is the Tsunami of 2004. A
tsunami is a huge tidal wave or a sea earthquake which starts off deep in the ocean and could
affect a whole region and can cause mass destruction. The 2004 tsunami claimed huge number of
lives and affected countries like India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Myanmar, Japan et cetera which
clearly shows the power of the mammoth tidal waves and sea earthquake. I was young and afraid
to see the aftermath of the Tsunami and its impact all across the world. I was pretty curious to
know more about this incident.
Topic 2

This lecture has been effective and has helped to understand about the different disasters and
their classifications. In the lecture there was discussion about cyclones and tsunami which has
helped me to think deep and focus on the new strategies of managing disaster like Tsunami.
After understanding the disaster discussion I have focused more on developing effective
strategies to manage disasters like Tsunami. Better technological devices and wave radars are
important to get initial notification of Tsunami which is important.
Topic 3
Disasters are extremely dangerous and this is very clear from the way they claim life. It is
important to note that most of the disasters happening in the world have claimed huge number
lives over the years and this clearly shows that disasters are biggest threat to human lives. From
the table 2 this aspect is justified. From the given table it is clear that mostly water disasters like
flood has claimed more lives than anything else in the world. In the Asian region natural
disasters have claimed most lives.
Topic 4
There is a significant impact of the disaster in Australia and this is undeniable. As compared to
the other natural hazards in the Australia Bushfire causes significant damage. Due to bushfire
and floods maximum of the houses are damaged, assets affected, crops damaged et cetera. For
instance the 2009 black Saturday fire showed that there is a huge potential for business casualty.
This also shows that 13% of the properties faced significant problems. From the present statistics
my person view is that fire is one of the major problems in the Australia and hence it is important
to make sure proper strategies are in place.
Week 2 PSYCHOSOCIAL ASPECTS OF DISASTERS: VULNERABLE GROUPS
Topic 1
The blue mountain bushfire is one of the biggest bushfire in Australia. There are number of
people who were affected by the fire to a large extent. The incident burnt around 196 homes and
impacted huge number of people across the area of Blue Mountains. Children have been
significantly impacted due to this issue. The residents of the Blue Mountains are English
speaking native Australians and there are also some indigenous communities who stay in this

area. Due to the fire these people have suffered significantly in terms of loss of property as well
as experienced the fear of death due to the heavy fire taking the charge all across the place.
Children in terms of gender have suffered to a large extent as they were blocked in schools and
were not at all connected with the outside world which created significant problems for them.
Overall it could be said that Australian Native community has suffered significantly due to the
Blue Mountain bushfire which is clearly one of the painful disasters in Australia in the recent
past. Even though the NSW government did what they could but the community clung on to each
other in order to come out of this huge problem.
Topic 2
Almost every disaster will have significant psychological impact on the minds of survivors and
hence it is important for the survivors to stay strong and do not let their minds weaken. One of
the main problems that the survivors of Blue Mountains would possibly face is the mental
breakdown as this is a huge disaster and they have probably lost almost everything some may
have lost their closed ones and this would definitely create a mental breakdown that may
exacerbate with time if the other survivors don’t support the sufferer. On the other hand physical
issues like severe burns would lead to several problems in the future if not managed properly and
if not medicated closely. The elderly victims will have immediate mental and physical sufferings
and would affect the rest of the family if not properly counseled. The mental issues take time to
manifest and hence it might not be a good indication that a person is keeping quiet and not at all
communicating or crying of shock which means there is a deep issue that has taken place in the
survivor and in the Blue Mountain case it can quite naturally happen.
I have seen flood but I have not been caught in it ever but if I am ever caught in flood and see
people suffering from it I shall probably respond to such situations rather keeping within myself.
I am a reactive person and tend to react according to the situation and hence if I am caught in a
natural disaster will respond rather than being vulnerable. Even though I have not faced any
disasters in life I personally feel that I will feel a bit weak post disaster. I love my personal
belongings and closed ones and naturally if I suffer loss I will definitely succumb to that pressure
but I can also recover but it takes a bit of time.

Topic 3
Emotional Responses to Disaster
 Shock regarding what just happened and numbness. Fear of the repeating of the incident, safety concerns. Generalised anger and irritation. Being upset about the losses of personal assets and of closed ones. Depression and deep concern. Feeling shameful about not being able to do anything. Frequent thoughts of the incidents. Memory troubles and unpleasant dreams. Screaming and crying.
Physical responses to disaster
 Physical injury causing restlessness and sleep issues. Fatigued Fear of noises and startled by noises. Nausea, diarrhea, constipation. Becoming extremely active (exception).
Topic 4
The main problem that the employees working in Twin Towers had with going to work after the
911 incident was managing the fear. This is just clear as water that all the workers definitely
faced trauma mental and physical. This is possibly the biggest terror attacks in the recent past
and hence it will definitely be mental trauma that the workers had to cope up with. The most
difficult aspect was to get up in the morning and again recollect the horrific incident. More than
anything this will probably haunt them that they have seen tragic deaths of so many people in
front of them and have just acted as clowns and wasn’t able to do anything. This is a huge issue
that they have to cope up with everyday. From the personal point of view I think more than
anything else they needed mental counseling and counseling supervisors who would help to
manage them and their trauma properly. They also needed to reactive support even though many

people supported the police in rescuing people it has been seen that many people were too
engaged with the trauma and couldn’t recover and hence rescue work was tough.
If I am in a foreign country and I am a healthcare worker faced with a communicable disease like
Ebola my first priority would be to focus on the root cause of the problems and to block those
gaps that means taking all the people affected by Ebola and taking them away from the non
infected population, providing standard healthcare services to the infected people and blocking
the possible roadways of transmission of the Ebola Virus.
Week 3 Disaster Management Frameworks
Topic 1

Topic 2
The Cyclone Larry has been a learning curve for the Government. It has helped to learn a lot of
things. In the video the common planning strategies that have been implemented is the
monitoring system of the movement of the cyclone with the geographic movement and also the
latitudinal and longitudinal position of the cyclone which would help to focus on the
development of the possible strategies of the Cyclone. Emergency service were in place like
constant alert news through radio, emergency teams were in service in different places to guide
the people on road et cetera. Even though the government made possible attempts to cope up
with this there were certain things that could have been implemented in order to manage the
impacts of the cyclone properly. With proper and strategic decisions in place the government
could have taken infrastructural safety, the communication with the local council would have
been effective and implement much better evacuation system.
Cyclone Response Stages
Topic 3
I visited the Brazil Olympics 2016 and the main issue there was the outbreak of Ebola and this is
one of the specific risk aspects that the Olympic management had to manage. Since there are
large number of people associated with this event it becomes very hard to identify the infected
person and put them aside. Hence in bigger events there is a significant risk of communicable
disease and hence it could be said that health issues are very important to be managed.

Topic 4

The media reports after the attack on world trade center was not at all positive as USA was
completely caught in nap. They didn’t see it coming and the media reports flashed on all the
destruction and terrorist groups completely. They were negative because there was mass
slaughtering of innocent people.
Week 4 Case Studies
Topic 1
The Victorian Royal Commission made fifty recommendations which were laid to manage
bushfire and its impacts on the society in Australia. From the present progress report it could be
said that some of them have been successfully met and some are towards significant progress.
From the research it could be understood that the very first recommendation made by the Royal

commission of enhancing the bushfire safety policy have made progress. The Victorian
Government has developed schemes and strategies to educate people about the possible risks and
effectively manage them through suitable bushfire safety policy. The bushfire safety policy have
been enhanced with the help of new inclusions and activeness of the authority following the
recommended steps in the royal commission report.
Topic 2
There have been significant issues with education about bushfire safety and hence the state made
significant progress on safety education on bushfire after the charter released. It could be said
that regular and weekly educational programs and online programs have been released and is
constantly updated which helps to communicate and inform the people about bushfire. It is now
easier to get in touch with the Victorian authority which has improved effectively with the
release of the recommendations.
Week 5 International Case Studies
Topic 1
The 2005 attacks clearly showed that there was difficulty for the local authority and the law
enforcement agencies to identify potential terror attacks during that time. It is important to note
that the political extremism had reached threshold where young people wanted to become
extremists. The extreme interest of the young Muslims to die for Jihad has been clearly showed
and stated and this is where the main difference lies. Similarly in the Nice Attack 2016 it could
be said that the person was clearly overwhelmed by Jihad and Muslim consolidation in the world
and hence committed the crime. It could be said that there is no possible difference in both the
attacks as terrorism continue to haunt the world and there is no possible difference that could be
made.
Topic 2
The Bhopal disaster has had social, environmental and physical impacts. There are still children
who come out deformities in physique and brain, there have been environmental and social
impact through loss of job, closed ones and economic decline due to the incident and the
community of Bhopal still suffers from physical issues.

Week 6 Psychosocial Management in Disasters
Topic 1
Three first aid action principles are look, listen and link. Look means checking for safety and
provides basic need to the person. Listening is important as approaching people are important to
understand their needs. Lastly link to help people get basic information for treatment.
Topic 2
The key factors to increase resilience are to:
 Make realistic plans and take steps to carry them.
 Effective skills and communication is important to build resilience.
 Effective counseling is also important build resilience.
 Constant improvement in the overall management of feeling and impulses.
Topic 3
Earthquake is one of the dangerous disasters which can impact many lives and can destroy
everything within seconds. The psychological risks which are attached with earthquake are
feeling of insecurity, pre traumatic stress, fear, depression et cetera which are extremely
dangerous for a person.
Topic 4
Some possible strategies to manage children in disasters below 10 years are:
 Counseling and more counseling. Psychological counseling helps to come out of
problems.
 Engaging in new activities quickly as recover sessions.
 Inclusion in playschools.
 Keeping the child in happy space.

Week 7 Public Health and Refugee Health
Topic 1
Key aspects of Public health response in disasters are:
 Ensuring unimpeded healthcare access to all the victims.
 Providing food and possible aids to the victims without possible bias.
 Constant assessment of the situations and taking actions for the safety and security of the
public.
 Possible information and communication regarding safety and security of the public.
 Usage of effective medical responders and proper and equal distribution.
 SMART approach to strategy planning and implementation to public health.
Topic 2
The five main health needs of the refugees and asylum seekers are:
 Physical needs are important for these people as many of them are suffering from health
issues like Hepatitis.
 Psychological needs are also common as most of them suffer from anxiety, depression et
cetera.
 Communicative needs which are important as most of the time asylum seekers are not
able to communicate with anyone becoming depressed. Hence communication is
important.
 Needs of support from the community is important as most of the time the refugees live
isolated.
 Health needs like regular checkup and possible basic medicines which would help them
to be up and running and shelter which is important to bring them under proper mindset.
All across the world there are many people who are getting displaced due to religious and
political wars and making exodus to other countries which increases the concern over refugees
and asylum seekers and hence getting to understand their main health needs have been effective
and enjoyable.