Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series (2021) / Chapter Skim
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5 Case Studies: Effect of Disasters on Specific Populations
5 Case Studies: Effect of Disasters on Specific Populations
Pages 65-86
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From page 65... ...
The fourth breakout panel, moderated by Roberta Lavin, professor at the University of New Mexico College of Nursing, discussed the effect of disasters on unaccompanied minors. EFFECT ON CHILDREN WITH ISSUES BROUGHT ON BY, OR EXACERBATED BY, DISASTERS Ensuring Children's Nutrition and Safety During and After Disasters Scott Needle, chief medical officer at Elica Health Center, discussed nutrition, safety, and environmental concerns for children in disasters.
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From page 66... ...
During and after disasters, children's 1 More information about postdisaster family reunification is available at https://www.fema. gov/media-library-data/1384376663394-eef4a1b4269de14faff40390e4e2f2d3/Post_Disaster_ Reunification_of_Children_-_A_Nationwide_Approach.pdf (accessed October 21, 2020)
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From page 67... ...
PsySTART Pediatric Disaster Mental Health Triage System Merritt Schreiber, professor of clinical pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, discussed the PsySTART pediatric disaster mental health triage system. He explained that there are various potential trajectories that children may follow after disasters, including resilience pathways (e.g., stress, transitory distress response)
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From page 68... ...
Schreiber discussed the use of the PsySTART triage system by the Sonoma County School system in nine underserved rural districts that were significantly affected by wildfire, flooding, and mudslide emergencies. The process began with PsySTART solution-focused triage, screening as many children as possible in the affected area and aligning resources with needs.
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From page 69... ...
Her family had no resources before the storm, so she would not have been expected to find equilibrium after losing everything in Hurricane Katrina. The fact that she found equilibrium shows the importance of resource mobilization as part of the disaster response, said Fothergill.
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This illustrates how a web of mobilized resources and services are needed to help children find equilibrium after a disaster, said Fothergill. EFFECT OF DISASTERS ON PARENTS AND GUARDIANS Disaster Effects on Parents, Caregivers, and Child Care Holly Nett, director of Child Care Emergency Partnerships at Child Care Aware of America, discussed how disasters can affect parents, caregivers, and child care.
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From page 71... ...
Recognizing that emergency preparedness, response, and recovery is vital to the well-being of children, families, and communities, Child Care Aware of America's emer gency preparedness team is committed to providing resources to child care resource and referral agencies and partnering agencies to support the needs of the child care sector before, during, and after emergencies.4 Issues for Parents and Guardians: Housing and Mental Health Jonathan Sury, National Center for Disaster Preparedness, discussed issues for parents and guardians related to housing and mental health and disasters. He described the evolving disaster landscape.
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From page 72... ...
He also presented findings from a study on housing stability after Hurricane Katrina, which demonstrates the connections between housing instability and mental health disability, poor sense of community, inadequate social support, worse academic performance among children, and emotional problems among children. Sury called for the following: • Investing in long-term financial support for community-based orga nizations to offer housing repair and extend the duration of hous ing assistance programs, • Building capacity among parents and guardians so they may better serve as resilient buffers for their children, and
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From page 73... ...
J Huff, educator and child advocate, shared his personal experience working as a part of numerous disaster responses and discussed the key role of schools as part of postdisaster recovery efforts.
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From page 74... ...
He noted that engaging all relevant stakeholders for such efforts is challenging, but a community plan may be critical for adequately providing a sustained mental health response to disasters, especially one that can address both acute and chronic mental health challenges. Acknowledging the critical roles of child care, schools, mental health support, and housing stability for disaster recovery, Beal asked which other systems should be established and maintained prior to disasters to ensure adequate disaster recovery.
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From page 75... ...
Sury added that communities often need technical assistance to establish their disaster response plans. Beal asked whether a federally funded mandate for children and youth task forces would be an appropriate vehicle to realize the plans and systems advocated by the panelists.
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From page 76... ...
For instance, these centers were critical for facilitating the transitions of many families from Louisiana to Texas during Hurricane Katrina. Sanchez shared a story of a woman in Puerto Rico who was trapped with her teenage son after Hurricane Maria.
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From page 77... ...
Parents often evacuated alone with their children and, after evacuating, they often faced difficulties in accommodating disability-related needs as they transitioned to multiple temporary housing situations. These families encountered psychological stresses associated with these experiences, but the postdisaster psychological supports available were not adapted for chil 7 More information about children with special health care needs being evacuated during wildfires is available at https://hazards.colorado.edu/news/research-counts/evacuating-underfire-children-with-special-healthcare-needs-in-disaster (accessed October 22, 2020)
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From page 78... ...
Finally, Stough discussed the roles of voluntary and nonprofit organi zations in disaster response. The specific needs of people with disabilities are often ignored or overlooked by volunteers providing disaster response, and volunteers are often not trained to identify and assist individuals with disabilities (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 2007)
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From page 79... ...
Sanchez said that the Center for P arent Information and Resources has created a webpage to direct parents to places that offer training on trauma-informed care. She mentioned two centers that focus on behavior: the Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports has begun working with trauma,8 and the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations addresses behavior among younger children.9 Moran shared a link to the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center website, which offers resources on disaster planning and trauma response.10 Stough explained that these and other related resources are valuable, but none of those resources or interventions are tailored to address the specific needs of children with preexisting disabilities and complex health care needs.
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From page 80... ...
Additionally, many families experienced delays in evacuation and in receiving information that affected their ability to keep their children with them. During Hurricane Katrina, many unaccompanied minors were sent to mass shelters; some of those minors arrived inthe company of nonguardian adults, at least one of whom was later found to be a sexual predator.
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From page 81... ...
Basic Center program services include up to 21 days of shel ter, food, clothing, medical care, crisis intervention, recreation programs, aftercare services, and counseling for individuals, groups, and families. Transitional living program services are provided to older homeless youth, with supporting projects that provide long-term residential services to 11 More information about postdisaster family reunification is available at https://www.fema.
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From page 82... ...
Human Trafficking Identification and Responses in Disaster Contexts Leanne McCallum, task force coordinator at the Greater New Orleans Human Trafficking Task Force, discussed frameworks for understanding the vulnerabilities of unaccompanied minors to human trafficking in the postdisaster context. Sex trafficking is defined as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purposes of a commercial sex act, in which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age (22 USC § 7102)
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From page 83... ...
NCMEC was established after its founding members observed that there was no system in place for searching for missing children in the United States. NCMEC's mission is to find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation, and prevent future victimization.
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From page 84... ...
NCMEC missing children specialists work as FEMA contractors, assisting with issues related to unaccompanied and missing children during disasters. She added that NCMEC operates an unaccompanied minors registry, a national data collection tool used to facilitate the tracking and reunification of unaccompanied minors, expedite the reunification of unaccompanied 13 Separated child and unaccompanied child are defined as per FEMA's postdisaster family reunification approach.
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From page 85... ...
Much work remains to be done to promote awareness of such resources and ensure adequate disaster preparedness, she added. Daniels said that FEMA has an emergency operation plan that organizations can use for disaster preparedness; it identifies the critical elements of all emergencies and has some information related to unaccompanied minors.
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From page 86... ...
McCallum called for integrating antitrafficking and domestic violence responses into postdisaster plans in order to help save lives during the disaster response period. 15 More information about ESFs 6 and 8 is available at https://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/ nrf/nrf-esf-06.pdf (accessed October 23, 2020)
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