FUNDAMENTALS OF PUBLIC HEALTH IN DISASTER AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT
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There is a significant correlation between public health and disaster management. Accordingly, the administration of human services is imperative based on the implications it imposes on the management of crisis. By providing the required infrastructure for supporting public health, it may be possible to ensure that individuals within a certain area or facility are safe irrespective of the occurrence of small-scale or widespread disasters. Usually, the state and the local community guarantee the provision of emergency response and preparedness plans in relation to disaster or crisis management (Kapucu and Ozerdem, 2013, 212). Such plans of action are important in guaranteeing the health safety of individuals amidst the incidence of an impending disaster. Moreover, such programs, based on the manner they attempt to safeguard different persons, illustrate the unavoidable relationship between the management of disasters or crises and the public health or human services administration.
Indeed, public health plays an important role in ensuring the safety of people within a respective community. Based on this, the managers of public health possess a heavy role in attempting to balance the needs and demands of both the community and persons (Parrish and Burke, 2011, 117). An illustration of this perspective involves the protection of persons with functional needs. Usually, long-term care facilities assume an important responsibility in ensuring health security for these individuals. Because of this, overseers of public health need to determine the best way to guarantee safety for these people. Furthermore, the management needs to assure protection regardless of the physical, cognitive, mental and sensory impairments that these individuals bear. On the other hand, the managers of public health also need to assure the safety of other members of the community in case of a disaster. Based on this, it is important for managers and leaders to manage existing community relationships for an effective public health system (Parrish and Burke, 2011, 123).
Indeed, public health management needs to establish profitable relationships with various stakeholders of the society in order to balance their needs as well as those of the community. This is important since it will assist considerably in the establishment of communal measures well versed in the mitigation of disasters. In addition to this, organizations responsible for the provision of public health need to work with other personnel apart from community leaders. For example, consumers and volunteers can also assist considerably in the proliferation of health security measures (Parrish and Burke, 2011, 123). In the case of a pandemic, consumers are at significant risk in relation to the method of dissemination used to spread a disease. For instance, an illness such as influenza can affect the consumers and the overall community since it is easily contagious (Clements, 2009, 245). Moreover, an outbreak such as this can strain acute care establishments and influence an unreasonable increase of patients.
This surge in patients can restrict the dissemination of effective health care and further aggravate the situation than rather, manage it efficiently. However, in order to ensure proper management of public health, organizations can gain assistance through volunteers as long they have established good relationships with them. Regionally, the system in place must remain operational in order to deliver optimum care regardless of the changing conditions (Clements, 2009, 249). If the situation becomes considerably difficult for the community to handle, it is imperative to request for governmental assistance (Schneider, 2011, 223). However, this may deliver negative results based on the unfortunate perceptions that people have concerning the interventions of the government in quelling natural disasters, such as the impacts of Hurricane Katrina (Fink, 2013, 332). Because of such a possibility, it may be imperative to provide training programs that instruct people on emergency management competently and efficiently.
In conclusion, ascertaining cooperation between public health management and different stakeholders of the community is imperative. Based on this relevance, healthcare organizations that maintain good relationships by effective administration of human services can work together to ensure that there is efficient management of disasters and crises. In addition to this, this relationship can enable the acquisition of professional aptitudes especially in the execution of emergency response and preparation plans further enabling health security of different members of the affected community regardless of the implications of a crisis.
References
Clements, Bruce. Disasters and Public Health: Planning and Response. Burlington: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2009.
Fink, Sheri. Five Days at Memorial. New York: Crown Publishers, 2013.
Kapucu, Naim and Alpasian Ozerdem. Managing Emergencies and Crises. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2013.
Parrish, Blaine and Robert E. Burke. “Managing Relationships and Effective Communication.” In Essentials of Management and Leadership in Public Health, edited by Robert E. Burke and Leonard H. Friedman, 117-126. Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett Learning, 2011.
Schneider, Saundra K. Dealing with Disaster: Public Management in Crisis Situations. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2011.