Introduction to Health Disaster Management

Introduction to Health Disaster Management
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Institution
Activity 1.1:
Develop for yourself a working definition of disasters from a community perspective.
From a community perspective, disasters can be defined as events that usually happen abruptly, and which have adverse effects on people’s lives and property, and negatively affects the normal day-to-day functioning of a community, its institutions and social systems. According to the Emergency Management Australia, disasters disrupt community life by causing injury and deaths, and create pressure on the authorities’ capacity to perform their functions effectively due to the strain on available resources (Australian Emergency Management, 2011).
Consider three recent events and explain why they meet this definition of a disaster.
Three recent events that meet this definition of a disaster include, the Japanese earthquake in 2011, the bushfire in Queensland, Australia, in 2009, and the 2010-2011 flooding in Queensland. The Japanese earthquake fits the definition of a disaster because the event had a serious effect on community life by causing the death and destruction of property. The Queensland bushfire was also unanticipated, and resulted in the loss of human life. The 2010-2011 flooding in Queensland led to mass evacuations of people from several towns, which disrupted the affected communities’ normal daily activities.
Activity 1.2:
What do you understand by the term “Disasters are a social phenomenon”?
The term “Disasters are a social phenomenon” refer to the impact that disasters have on the social sphere of human life. Events, such as natural calamities, could not be called disasters if they did not affect human life in one way or another. In this regard, the understanding of disasters as a social phenomenon takes into account the direct and indirect negative consequences that natural or man-made calamities have on people, communities, and nations.
How has this understanding changed over the last 20 years and how would it be different in a resource poor society?
Over the years the understanding of disasters as a social phenomenon has changed by the broadening of the scope or context within which natural or man-made calamities are understood. Accordingly, disasters are not just regarded as disruptors of social life, but also include the economic and psychological impact on the victims. The understanding of disasters from the economic and psychological perspectives are seen in the way response to and management of disasters focus on helping affected communities recover from the effects of the destruction of property through mobilization of resources to facilitate reconstruction, and helping people adjust to post-disaster situations through counselling. Accordingly, it can be argued hat the understanding of disasters as social phenomena has changed over the years by adopting a comprehensive approach in whi...