CHANGES OCCURRING WITH DISASTER


During a disaster, changes in divisions of work, power, authority and perceptions are appropriate expectations.

Power

Power creates change in people during regular interactions and dramatically during disasters. In terms of control, influence, capacities or strengths during a disaster it is the disaster that holds the power. Normally powerful people can be brought to their knees and usually powerless people can rise to superhuman abilities . The hierarchy power structures of any organization may be made impotent by the superceding power of a disaster.

start sidebar
Case Example

The family came in for counseling ” two parents and five children. Four of the children had genetically determined terminal illnesses. The parents were distraught and disoriented, and apparently had been for a long time. After a few minutes into the session, the counselor realized she was talking, but no one was listening or hearing. She scanned the family. The one child who had not been diagnosed with the illness was seven years old and paying very close attention to the counselor. The therapist realized that the seven year old had all the power in the family. She leaned over and quietly asked the child, "Am I mistaken, or are you the power in this group ?" The child, with open wide eyes astonishingly responded, "Well, somebody has to be in charge!"

end sidebar
 

Work

Work stops during a disaster unless you work in the disaster industry. Expecting anyone to continue normal activities is at the least unreasonable and at the worst unethical, inhuman, and perhaps even insane. Expect and support a reasonable period of time between the end of the incident and the return of any level of normalcy. The specific details of the disaster should define those expectations.

start sidebar
Case Example

The team showed up to work after the bombing . They were terrified and distraught, but did not want to appear as if they were abandoning the company. They also wanted to help or keep doing something normal. The manager engaged the Emotional Continuity Management plan and instructed the team that work would be a slow-down force until further notice. Team members knew their emergency assignments and some people knew they could go home and still be "on the team" for the duration. The team set up a television in the center of what was left of the office space, someone got food, another employee set up chairs around the TV, and emergency buddies checked in with each other. Not much work was done for the first three days, but everyone felt emotionally connected.

end sidebar
 

Authority

Professionals who work in the disaster industry recognize the need for clearly understood lines of command during a disaster. Incident command is set up to provide incident management or authority procedures in charge of the on-scene process of a disaster. They initiate response, assess the situations, and manage resources. This command operation becomes the icon, flag or base of operations that keeps workers on track in the chaos. In your company, you may need to either be the incident manager during a disaster or delegate one. You also need to create a procedure in the event that you are not available. One of the most difficult discussions after any disaster can be dealing with a manager who was injured, absent, on vacation, or not present for any reason during a disaster where they had authority.

start sidebar
Case Example

The city official had not been re-elected when the disaster hit. He suited up, showed up, and became the emotional focus point for the survivors. He passed the torch to the next duly elected official as soon as the incident began to wind down.

end sidebar
 

Perceptions

There is an understanding among mental health disaster workers that any victim, emergency responder or mental health disaster worker (including themselves ) that they meet during or after a disaster will be in an "altered state of consciousness." The degree of that alteration of thinking is the variable. It is never a question of "if" there is an altered state ” only "how altered is it" will be the relevant issue. This means that brains that are processing information in a distorted manner because of the influence of the incident do not operate like brains not under duress.

Victims and responders are "under the influence" of the disaster and need to be managed like anyone under the influence of a powerful drug. The brain release significant amounts of brain chemicals directly into the brain-blood barrier , the body releases fight-or-flight hormones , blood moves away from the extremities (hands and feet and brain) toward the center of the body (belly) and digestion stops. People under this influence can do some very odd, silly, heroic, bizarre, unexpected and dangerous things. The word " shock " is a term that most people understand, but it is inadequate to define the long terms effects of disaster influence. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a good example of the long- term effects. A mother running into a fire to save her child and coming out cradling a sofa pillow in her arms and singing to it as if it is her child because she truly "sees" it as her child is not an unusual, albeit tragic, example of an altered state of consciousness designed by disaster.

start sidebar
Case Example

October 10, 2001. The mother was sitting with the trauma counselor. Her son was in the World Trade Center when it collapsed . Weeks had passed. She was calmly explaining to the counselor that she knew her son was still alive and sitting in the basement of the building with one of his work buddies. She explained a well- constructed belief that the friends had found each other during the collapse, had run down to the pizza place in the basement of the buildings , and were under a table eating pizza and drinking bottled water. This distressed but confident mother was surrounded by her family that had already come to believe that both the son and the friend were lost. Compassionately patient with this mother, they did not challenge her altered state and quietly waited with her. She repeated her story to anyone who would listen. She in fact, sought out new audiences as often as she could find anyone to listen. Her story became her lifeline ritual .

Learning Byte

The counselor knew not to challenge the story and had instructed the family not to disturb her belief system, informing them gently that it would resolve into reality in its own time. The counselor did not agree with the mother, nor did she disagree . She remained powerfully neutral and listened. This allowed the mother to modify her story a little bit each time she told it. By the end of the week, the mother was open to the beginning images of her son's death. She was starting to accept the possibility that her son was gone and her brain began to accept the capacity to integrate the enormity of this horrifying information. Her first movement toward this was when the mother reached out and took the hand of the therapist, looked the counselor in the eye and said, "It's been a long time down there, I don't think the pizza would still be any good, do you?" The counselor held her hand and said gently, "I don't know, if it was New York Pizza, it might be good no matter what? What do you think?" The mother began to cry.

DO THIS : Honor the enduring power and ongoing dynamic of disasters.

DON'T : Hurry the process.

end sidebar
 

Declaring a Disaster

When a public disaster happens, although the victims may quickly decide it is a disaster for them, there are strict local, state, and federal guidelines they must be met for an official declaration. These declarations are the templates that control funding, provide emergency relief services, offer public assistance, initiate debris clearance, repair and demolitions, deliver replacements , create emergency housing, grant loans or grants, provide counseling, launch search and rescue teams , arrange for transportation, introduce mass care and feeding, begin mutual aid, start any necessary changes to laws or regulations, provide any tax relief, management or provision of restoration costs, and give immediate and long term financial support or relief. See www.disastercenter.com and www.fema.gov if you would like to read some of the language of Executive Orders and laws concerning official declarations of disaster. The thumbnail sketch of authority is:

  • Local disasters are declared by the governing body of a city when conditions are beyond the control of the services, personnel and equipment of the local government.

  • State of Emergency is the declaration made at the state level by the governor when conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property exists.

  • Major disaster is declared at the federal level by the president when resources of local, state and private relief organizations will not suffice.

Resources

Before, during and after a disaster there are many agencies and trained professionals available to help a manager prepare their employees for crisis. Agencies can be local, county, state, or federal and include paid and volunteer staff. The agencies that are federally mandated to respond to disasters each have a specific turf or area of specialized response. Each of the following agencies, except the Red Cross, are federally funded . The American Red Cross receives no money from the government, although it has been congressionally mandated to respond to disaster. The Red Cross depends entirely on the donations of citizens and yet must respond to disaster.

Assistance Organizations

(This list is not exhaustive, and due to the current nature of the global environment may not be correct for the next 45 minutes. It is important to stay current with what assistance organizations are tasked with, what their turf is, what level of authority they have, who is the spokesperson nationally and locally, and how each organization may influence your company's recovery in the case of a disaster of any level or duration)

  • Homeland Security (HS)

  • Department of Justice (DOJ)

  • Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

  • Department of Energy (DOE)

  • Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

  • Deapartment of Health and Human Services (DHHS)

  • U.S. Department of Transportation

  • Department of Defense (DOD)

  • National Transporation Safety Board (NTSB)

  • American Red Cross (Arc)

  • Local Law Enforcement

  • Fire Department

  • Emergency Medical Services

  • Public Works

  • Volunteer Services and Organizations: Southern Baptist Church, Salvation Army, Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Teams, D'Mort (Death support), Search and Rescue, Dive Rescue, Ski Patrol, K-Nine Search and Rescue, HAM Radio, and more.




Emotional Terrors in the Workplace. Protecting Your Business' Bottom Line. Emotional Continuity Management in the Workplace
Emotional Terrors in the Workplace: Protecting Your Business Bottom Line - Emotional Continuity Management in the Workplace
ISBN: B0019KYUXS
EAN: N/A
Year: 2003
Pages: 228

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net