Respond quickly and effectively to workplace trauma For years, employee assistance programs have been providing critical incidence stress management services to employees who have been involved in, or witness to, workplace fatalities and accidents that are likely to traumatize workers and affect quality of work and increase sick leave and health claims. Workplace Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Management presents successful strategies for rapid response to episodes of workplace violence, natural disasters, and acts of terrorism that have become all-too-common occurrences in the workplace. Workplace Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Management is a must read for professionals in the business of providing crisis response services and for employers responsible for planning and coordinating organizational responses to disasters. This unique book presents first-hand accounts from EAP program managers, Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) professionals, and crisis managers on their trauma response techniques and from health professionals involved in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon. Workplace Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Management examines: similar and dissimilar experiences of EAP professionals in responding to large scale traumatic events using military models in trauma response managing trauma in the South African mining industry trauma response techniques in high risk work settings compassion fatigue among professional helpers how various types of industries handle critical incidents EAP responses to natural disasters repetitious violence in the workplace organizational crisis intervention and much more Workplace Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Management also includes Bern Beidel’s first-person account as EAP Director for the United States House of Representatives of the response to anthrax contamination in mailrooms and office buildings in the nation’s capital.

Initial priorities for U.S. participation in the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, declared by the United Nations, are contained in this volume. It focuses on seven issues: hazard and risk assessment; awareness and education; mitigation; preparedness for emergency response; recovery and reconstruction; prediction and warning; learning from disasters; and U.S. participation internationally. The committee presents its philosophy of calls for broad public and private participation to reduce the toll of disasters.

Detailing methods for preparing organizations for disasters, this book discusses not only tried and true tactics, but also areas often overlooked during the reactive and post-disaster phases. The authors address special considerations important in planning for disaster management, from chemical spills, floods, aircraft crashes, and terrorist attack

When communities face complex public health emergencies, state local, tribal, and territorial public health agencies must make difficult decisions regarding how to effectively respond. The public health emergency preparedness and response (PHEPR) system, with its multifaceted mission to prevent, protect against, quickly respond to, and recover from public health emergencies, is inherently complex and encompasses policies, organizations, and programs. Since the events of September 11, 2001, the United States has invested billions of dollars and immeasurable amounts of human capital to develop and enhance public health emergency preparedness and infrastructure to respond to a wide range of public health threats, including infectious diseases, natural disasters, and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear events. Despite the investments in research and the growing body of empirical literature on a range of preparedness and response capabilities and functions, there has been no national-level, comprehensive review and grading of evidence for public health emergency preparedness and response practices comparable to those utilized in medicine and other public health fields. Evidence-Based Practice for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response reviews the state of the evidence on PHEPR practices and the improvements necessary to move the field forward and to strengthen the PHEPR system. This publication evaluates PHEPR evidence to understand the balance of benefits and harms of PHEPR practices, with a focus on four main areas of PHEPR: engagement with and training of community-based partners to improve the outcomes of at-risk populations after public health emergencies; activation of a public health emergency operations center; communication of public health alerts and guidance to technical audiences during a public health emergency; and implementation of quarantine to reduce the spread of contagious illness.

Meant to aid State & local emergency managers in their efforts to develop & maintain a viable all-hazard emergency operations plan. This guide clarifies the preparedness, response, & short-term recovery planning elements that warrant inclusion in emergency operations plans. It offers the best judgment & recommendations on how to deal with the entire planning process -- from forming a planning team to writing the plan. Specific topics of discussion include: preliminary considerations, the planning process, emergency operations plan format, basic plan content, functional annex content, hazard-unique planning, & linking Federal & State operations.

Sooner or later, most organizations will face some kind of disaster--flood, fire, hurricane, earthquake, workplace violence, bombings, even the arrest or sudden death of the CEO. Existing books on crisis management deal almost exclusively with physical breakdowns, logistics issues, data losses and environmental and economic impacts. But it is people who actually make a business run, and Leading People Through Disasters is the first book to deal with the all-important human side of recovery. Kathryn McKee and Liz Guthridge show how to ensure that your business continuity plan addresses human as well as business issues and they offer detailed advice on what to do when disaster actually strikes--how to keep people safe, calm, and informed; help managers care for employees; and deal with employees' immediate and ongoing emotional and psychological needs while getting the organization back on its feet. This comprehensive guide features a wealth of examples, checklists, forms, and other practical tools that will help you take action when you need it most.

Information technology (IT) has the potential to play a critical role in managing natural and human-made disasters. Damage to communications infrastructure, along with other communications problems exacerbated the difficulties in carrying out response and recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina. To assist government planning in this area, the Congress, in the E-government Act of 2002, directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to request the NRC to conduct a study on the application of IT to disaster management. This report characterizes disaster management providing a framework for considering the range and nature of information and communication needs; presents a vision of the potential for IT to improve disaster management; provides an analysis of structural, organizational, and other non-technical barriers to the acquisition, adoption, and effective use of IT in disaster; and offers an outline of a research program aimed at strengthening IT-enabled capabilities for disaster management.