Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters Strategies, Opportunities, and Planning for Recovery (2015) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 23-46
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 23... ...
2 Health, as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO, 1948) is "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." 3 This number was derived from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
|
From page 24... ...
The committee that conducted this study explicitly rejected the traditional characterization of disaster recovery as a process that restores a community to pre-disaster conditions. When viewed through a health lens, this formulation is shortsighted given the general state of suboptimal health status that characterizes so many American communities and the associated economic and societal costs.
|
From page 25... ...
. Disruption of social services that ensure access of vulnerable populations to resources for disease management further contributes to negative health outcomes.
|
From page 26... ...
Despite clear evidence demonstrating the special needs of vulnerable populations during and after a disaster, these populations continue to be excluded from emergency management planning in some juris dictions (Sherry and Harkins, 2011)
|
From page 27... ...
Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds and Social Services Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds. These estimates are likely underestimates of the total amount of federal recovery assistance from all agencies (Weiss and Weidman, 2013)
|
From page 28... ...
http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/ health_glance-2013-en. This definition conveys the concept that a healthy community is one in which the broad array of factors that impact community well-being are addressed, including social, environmental, political, economic, cultural, and health (physical, emotional, and developmental)
|
From page 29... ...
Initiation of this study was spurred by concerns that too often, absent from discussions on recovery is the critical importance of health -- including the roles of the health (public health, medical, and social services) and nonhealth sectors in ensuring that health considerations are incorporated into recovery decision making and activities.
|
From page 30... ...
and recommending a series of recovery practices and novel programs most likely to impact overall community public health and contribute to resiliency for future incidents in the short-, intermediate-, and long-term period during disaster response and following incident stabilization. Specifically the com mittee will: • xamine existing guidance and frameworks, peer-reviewed literature, and case studies from post E disaster response and recovery operations; − Characterize and identify key determinants of pre- and post-disaster public health, medical, and social services that may serve as indicators for the affected population's long-term recovery, from various perspectives amongst the different levels of government and nongovernment actors generally located within a community of place; − Ascertain which other sectors are responsible for, or have the organizational interest and capac ity for, directly affecting the identified determinants, and identify opportunities for collaborative engagement or support amongst those sectors; • dentify practical guidance for recovery practices and programs for each sector that will benefit com I munity post-disaster health and public health outcomes in the short-, intermediate-, and long-term.
|
From page 31... ...
Local adaptation, innovation, and initiative will be key to success. BOX 1-4 Defining Disaster For the purposes of this report, the committee adopted the following definition from the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction: D isaster: A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources.
|
From page 32... ...
Report Audiences The audiences for the committee's guidance and recommendations and the report as a whole include • state, local, tribal, and territorial6 elected and public officials who typically hold leadership roles in emergency management and strategic planning (i.e., governors, mayors, city managers and council members, emergency managers, disaster recovery coordinators) ; • state, local, tribal, and territorial public health officials; • infrastructure support professionals, such as those responsible for urban and regional planning, housing, transportation, and public works; • federal agency stakeholders; • health care delivery professionals and organizational leaders; • social services professionals; • community support (including faith-based)
|
From page 33... ...
Instead, we relied on invited testimony from decision makers representing multiple sectors (e.g., emergency management, public health, city management) whose communities had recently been struck by a disaster.
|
From page 34... ...
The phases are as follows: • Pre-disaster preparedness -- The phase of the disaster management cycle prior to a disaster focused on mitigation, response and recovery planning, and capacity and resilience building (not part of the recovery process itself, but ongoing)
|
From page 35... ...
Minimally, however, communities should ensure that a vision is in place and organizational arrangements have been laid out that will enable a coordinated approach to recovery planning. Pre-event recovery planning allows communities to think carefully about the obstacles that will be encountered during recovery, when there will be great pressure to act quickly, and, importantly, to identify opportunities to approach redevelopment in ways that enhance the health, resilience, and sustainability of the community.
|
From page 36... ...
; and • identify and adopt a shared vision developed as part of ongoing community strategic planning. Finally, although disaster management is a primary function of emergency managers, a comprehensive approach to managing disaster risks will require the engagement of the whole community (see Box 1-5)
|
From page 37... ...
The Changing Disaster Policy Landscape The increasing focus on the health implications of disasters, in terms of both challenges and opportunities, can be seen in a number of domestic and international disaster-related policies, including the National Health Security Strategy; domestic preparedness and disaster recovery policy, including the National Preparedness System and the recent National Disaster Recovery Framework; international disaster risk reduction policy; and climate change policy. Each of these is described briefly below; a more comprehensive description of recovery-related legislation and policies can be found in Appendix A
|
From page 38... ...
International Disaster Risk Reduction Policy Internationally, greater emphasis on incorporating health considerations into resilience building and recovery is evident in recent efforts surrounding the second Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA-2) , titled "Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters" (Burkle et al., 2014)
|
From page 39... ...
National Preparedness System -- prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery -- are consistent with a comprehensive approach to disaster risk reduction. Nonetheless, alignment of terminology and greater emphasis on addressing social determinants of health and reducing poverty as key strategies for reducing disaster risk could better harmonize U.S.
|
From page 40... ...
Through this report, the committee hopes to bring these two stakeholder groups together so that a health lens is applied to disaster recovery planning and the menu of tools and resources for health improvement planners is expanded to include those associated with disaster planning and recovery activities. The committee emphasizes that it does not consider health to be more important than other recovery support functions; in fact, it considers each area as critical to the building of healthy communities.
|
From page 41... ...
By bringing awareness of the opportunities presented during the recovery planning process to advance the goals of those working across multiple sectors to promote community well-being, the committee hopes to elicit their increased engagement in that process -- both before and after a disaster. To facilitate maximum utility for the wide array of audiences from various sectors, the report is organized in a modular format so that key operational guidance and recommendations, as well as their supporting background and evidence, are easily accessible.
|
From page 42... ...
Chapters 5 through 8 provide guidance and supporting background regarding the opportunities to enhance human recovery through health and social services, including medical, behavioral and public health, and social support services. Chapters 9 and 10 provide guidance and supporting background regarding the opportunities to use place-based strategies15 (i.e., coordinated interventions targeted to specific geographic areas)
|
From page 43... ...
, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
|
From page 44... ...
M Engelgua, and Chronic Diseases and Vulnerable Populations in Natural Disasters Working Group.
|
From page 45... ...
:5-18. WCDRR (World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction)
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.