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PubMedDate not supplied

Back to where it happened: self-reported symptom improvement of tsunami survivors who returned to the disaster area.

BACKGROUND: During October and November 2005, the National Norwegian Tsunami Support Association organized a journey to the disaster area for survivors. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the Tsunami affected the participants' psychological problems. METHODS: Twenty-nine adults and 19 children made the journey. Steps were taken to enable each individual to acquire an overall understanding of the catastrophic event. Various forms of antiphobic training were provided. At the end of the stay, 28 adults replied to a questionnaire. The questions concerned: (1) motives for traveling; (2) benefits experienced; (3) psychological problems before departure; and (4) problems at the end of the stay. Parents with children were asked to assess their children's psychological problems at the same points in time. RESULTS: Considerable improvements in anxiety symptoms were reported and observed in both the adults and children. No certain cases of retraumatization occurred. DISCUSSION: The improvements can be understood in the light of psychodynamic, cognitive, and behavioral theory approaches. The duration of the improvement in symptoms remains to be documented. There appears to be grounds for encouraging traumatized patients to return to a disaster area as part of the treatment process if they so wish.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

RealityFlythrough: enhancing situational awareness for medical response to disasters using ubiquitous video.

The first moments at a disaster scene are chaotic. The command center initially operates with little knowledge of hazards, geography and casualties, building up knowledge of the event slowly as information trickles in by voice radio channels. RealityFlythrough is a tele-presence system that stitches together live video feeds in real-time, using the principle of visual closure, to give command center personnel the illusion of being able to explore the scene interactively by moving smoothly between the video feeds. Using RealityFlythrough, medical, fire, law enforcement, hazardous materials, and engineering experts may be able to achieve situational awareness earlier, and better manage scarce resources. The RealityFlythrough system is composed of camera units with off-the-shelf GPS and orientation systems and a server/viewing station that offers access to images collected by the camera units in real time by position/orientation. In initial field testing using an experimental mesh 802.11 wireless network, two camera unit operators were able to create an interactive image of a simulated disaster scene in about five minutes.

Disaster Planning↗
PubMed2006

Hurricane Katrina and the healthcare infrastructure: A focus on disaster preparedness, response, and resiliency.

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina provides a window of opportunity to address a frail and failing healthcare system. Katrina was the rare incident that disrupted the external systems supplying hospitals with key services and resources needed for the organizations to function; increased the number of patients, both present and expected, that required medical care; and affected directly the physical plants of the hospitals, challenging their functionality. Sorting through and gleaning useful lessons to increase the resilience of hospitals for this type of catastrophic incident will take time and will require system-wide public health planning and intervention. In this article, the authors focus on how hospitals prepared for, responded to, and coped with Katrina. They also provide a brief overview of the current situation and the healthcare crisis confronting hospitals and communities in the region affected by Katrina and discuss the impending need to develop disaster-resilient medical and healthcare systems. Planning, access to adequate resources, networking, effective communication and coordination, and training and education of doctors, nurses, technicians, and medical staff are essential in the development of a resilient healthcare infrastructure that will be able to provide the much needed services to populations affected by future disasters.

Community-Institutional Relations↗
PubMed1991

Pediatric disaster medicine.

Disaster situations often involve children. The specific injuries that may be expected and the implications of these injuries for both acute caregivers and disaster planners are discussed in this article.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Disaster reduction: what it means for nurses.

Nurses have a special role to play in strengthening the disaster reduction capacities of their communities. Below, Ailsa Holloway outlines the opportunities for nurses to cooperate with WHO and the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction and to apply their knowledge and skills in confronting the natural and other hazards.

Disaster Planning↗
PubMed1986

Medical response to a natural disaster: the Barrie tornado.

On May 31, 1985, a tornado devastated an area of Barrie, Ont. Following a prepared disaster plan, the staff of the local hospital managed 155 casualties, including 16 cases of multiple trauma, over 5 hours. The authors summarize the hospital's experience and give recommendations to help the staff of other hospitals improve their disaster plans.

Disaster Planning↗
PubMed1978

Updating disaster plans: a tale of three hospitals.

Three hospitals that were struck by disaster in 1977 have undertaken major revision of their disaster plans as a result of unexpected problems that occurred during the crises. Lee Hospital, Johnstown, PA, is installing a tough "floodproofing" system; Jewish Hospital and Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY, and Bellevue Hospital Center, New York City, are revamping their emergency electrical systems.

Disaster Planning↗
PubMed1994

Psychological response to disaster: implications for Hawaii.

Given the frequency of natural disasters in Hawaii, it is important for practitioners to be aware of the numerous resulting psychological responses and risk factors, especially those unique to Hawaii. Practical guidelines are presented for practitioners, both in providing leadership during the disaster and in screening for psychopathology thereafter.

Disaster Planning↗
PubMed1993

The amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS).

The rescue, treatment, and evacuation of thousands of patients from a natural disaster or armed conflict that is coordinated by the National Disaster Medical System must be performed in accordance to health care standards recognized in this country. Without an effective communication system, morbidity and mortality will needlessly rise. A medical communication protocol that addresses this problem is proposed.

Communication↗
PubMed1993

The Avianca plane crash: an emergency medical system's response to pediatric survivors of the disaster.

OBJECTIVE: On January 25, 1990, a jetliner crashed on Long Island, New York. Twenty-two children survived the crash. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the emergency medical system's response to these pediatric survivors. METHODS: A questionnaire was sent to all local, acute care hospitals to determine their specific pediatric capabilities and to rank them as level I, II, or III pediatric centers; level I centers are tertiary care facilities. A second questionnaire was sent to all hospitals that received pediatric survivors to collect specific clinical information for each patient. Based on this clinical information a Pediatric Trauma Score (PTS) was assigned to each patient. Children with a PTS < or = 8 are considered to be at increased risk of trauma-related mortality. The assigned PTS was compared to the level of the pediatric center to which each patient was transported. RESULTS: Of 25 children on board the plane, 22 (88%) survived the crash; of 135 adults on board, 70 (52%) survived (chi 2 = 9.9, P = .002). Seven children had a PTs < or = 8; only 1 of these high-risk patients was transported directly to a level I pediatric center, and only 2 of the 5 high-risk children initially transported to level III facilities were transferred to higher level pediatric centers. CONCLUSIONS: Pediatric survivors were neither adequately triaged nor transported to appropriate facilities which could optimize their care. Possible explanations for this include: (1) unique features of the rescue operation, (2) limited pediatric training of prehospital personnel, and (3) deficiencies of the regional disaster plan. Emergency medical services systems and disaster plans can be made more responsive to children's needs by: (1) acknowledging that children have special needs requiring referral, (2) improving the training of prehospital personnel in pediatric emergency care, (3) classifying ill and injured children according to appropriate triage criteria, (4) recognizing existing tertiary care pediatric centers as the optimal location for the treatment of critically ill and injured children, and (5) designating these centers as the appropriate transport destination for critically ill and injured children.

Accidents, Aviation↗
PubMed1997

Utilization of Special Forces medical assets during disaster relief: the Hurricane Andrew experience.

Special Forces units and their innate assets are presented as the ideal first-response unit to natural disasters due to their breadth of skill, speed of response, and ability to work independently in remote areas. "Green Beret" soldiers are particularly suited to work under the most extreme hardships, with little or no supervision, and can demonstrate tremendous amounts of initiative and creativity in unique and changing situations. The compact, versatile, and adaptable detachments of which Special Forces Groups are composed can serve as vital resources in humanitarian and disaster relief operations as well as in combat.

Disaster Planning↗
PubMed1998

[The All-Russian Disaster Medicine Service].

Theoretical bases of creation, stages of development, normative-and-legal base, structure and problems of a All-Russia service of disaster medicine are stated. In article some questions about experience of rendering of the medical aid to the injured in the extreme situations (North Caucus region, Sakhalin, Budenovsk, Irkutsk), training of personnel, creation of reserves of medical property for extreme situations, organization of service management are submitted. The federal program "Perfection of All-Russia service of disaster medicine on 1997-2001 years" is considered in detail.

Disaster Planning↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The European Task Force for Disaster Relief: a multi-disciplinary team approach.

After the earthquake in Armenia, the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) Commission on Acute Renal failure, in cooperation with the United States National Kidney Foundation, has created a Disaster Relief Task Force to deal with post-disaster nephrology assistance to the affected victims (1). Its main purpose is to prevent and treat crush injury-induced ARF that occurs following traumatic rhabdomyolysis.

Acute Kidney Injury↗
PubMed1999

Problems in mass-disaster dental identification: a retrospective review.

A wide variety of problems may prevent or hinder a dental-identification (ID) team in its efforts to identify mass casualties. Since these problems have been infrequently reported in a comprehensive manner, the authors identified and summarized these problems to increase the awareness of dental-ID team members and to prepare them for future mass-disaster missions. The authors analyzed 50 mass disasters--ten in which the authors as members of military dental ID teams played a major role and 40 from the literature--and summarized problems that they confronted.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Mental health problems and natural disaster: tornado victims.

Twenty-six tornado victims were interviewed to determine the mental health consequences of a natural disaster. The results, based on retrospective accounts indicated that approximately three-fourths of the victims suffered increased psychological discomfort of a subjective nature five months later. This discomfort was characterized by anxiety, nervousness, and mild somatic complaints. Disruptions in interpersonal relationships among family members were less frequently reported. The disaster did not produce severe emotional impairment and few of the victims felt the need for professional mental health assistance.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Traumatic Exposure Severity Scale (TESS): a measure of exposure to major disasters.

The debate about the role of the intensity of the stressor has occupied a central focus in posttraumatic stress disorder literature. There is currently a paucity of instruments with established psychometric properties measuring severity of trauma exposure in disaster survivors. The Traumatic Exposure Severity Scale was developed specifically to assess dimensions of exposure to an earthquake disaster in adults. Its 24 items assess a wide range of stressors organized into five subscales, derived from factor analyses: Resource Loss, Damage to Home and Goods, Personal Harm, Concern for Significant Others, and Exposure to the Grotesque. The scale provides both Occurrence and Distress scores. It has good internal reliability and validity. The instrument correlates significantly, but moderately, with a number of traumatic stress measures and the Beck Depression Index.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Status of natural disaster victims' health and recovery 1 and 3 years later.

Bereaved, property loss, and control groups (N = 155) studied 11 months following the 1980 volcanic eruption of Mt. St. Helens were recontacted 35 months postdisaster to test the hypotheses that the greater the loss experienced, the higher the stress, and the poorer the health. In general, the hypotheses were supported. Even though mental distress decreased between the two data collection periods, the mental health of the bereaved group remained poorer than both the property loss and control groups. At 3 years postdisaster, only 4% of the study participants reported complete recovery from disaster loss. Findings are compared with those of other recent disasters and clinical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Disasters↗