Emergency management what is it

What Is Emergency Management? Ontario's Emergency Management Glossary of Terms defines Emergency Management as: "Organized activities undertaken to prevent, mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from actual or potential emergencies.

Prevention Actio ns taken to stop an emergency or disaster from occurring. Mitigation Actions taken to reduce the adverse impacts of an emergency or disaster. The construction of storm sewers to prevent flooding. Preparedness Actions taken prior to an emergency or disaster to ensure an effective response. However, a subset of survivors are distressed to the point of changing behavior such as surging on hospitals and points of distribution. A smaller percentage develop psychiatric disorders including PTSD, depression, and anxiety disorders.

Some survivors will experience psychological impact long after the disaster event is over. Generally, across all types of disasters, the degree of psychological impact is directly related to the magnitude, intensity, duration, and geographic scope of the disaster. As one key finding, human-generated intentional disasters such as terrorism produce severe psychiatric outcomes in a higher proportion of exposed persons than do natural disasters Norris et al.

Effective Emergency Management is also effective behavioral health support and intervention. Strong scientific evidence exists for the psychological benefits of interventions that create or restore safety, calming, connectedness, self-efficacy, and hope for disaster survivors Hobfall, et al.

Effective emergency management includes Fugate, :. These actions are directed toward the disaster-affected community at large not usually delivered one-on-one.

These actions rapidly and efficiently reestablish safety, security, presence, basic needs, and critical services—with powerful psychological benefit. Also, these actions are outcomes-driven. Predictors of Serious Psychological Impact. Pre-Disaster Risk Factors. Lack of personal and family preparedness. Poverty and lack of financial resources. Lack of social support lack of family and friendship resources. Previous traumatic exposure abuse, combat, assault, severe accident, life-threatening illness.

Previous psychiatric or substance abuse diagnosis. Lifespan risks young children, single parent status, frail elderly. Special needs and disabilities that may limit ability to respond to warnings, evacuate, engage in self-care. Disaster Event Phase Exposures. Personal experience of threat of death or severe bodily harm. Witnessing harm to others or death. Physical harm to self. Exposure to grotesque scenes.

Exposure to noxious agents. Post-Disaster Risk Factors. Ongoing threats. Severe destruction. Disruption of basic needs and services. Emotional: Fear, terror, anger, irritability, overwhelm, hopelessness, helplessness. Behavioral: Changes in sleep and diet, decline in performance, increased substance use. Social: Withdrawal, isolation, difficulty giving or receiving support, hostility.

Very large batches of data improve emergency preparedness with disaster management data analysis of statistics from previous disasters, which is feasible with the use of big data analytics platforms that can produce instant insights.

Emergency management principles dictate that an emergency and disaster management plan must be: Comprehensive; Progressive; Risk-Driven; Integrated; Collaborative; Coordinated; Flexible; and Professional.

The capacity for emergency management and response personnel includes all of the physical, institutional, social, or economic resources, as well as leaders, managers, and skilled personnel in a community, society, or organization that can reduce the risks or effects of a disaster. The capacity for emergency management can be categorized as physical, social, economic, or attitudinal:.