Community social vulnerability and access to medications for opioid use disorder within the continental US: A cross-sectional study

The COVID-19 pandemic, like past natural disasters, was associated with significant disruptions in medications for opioid use disorder services and increased opioid overdose and mortality. We examined the association between community vulnerability to disasters and pandemics and geographic access to each of the three medications for opioid use disorder within the continental US and if this association was impacted by urban, suburban, or rural classification. We found communities with greater vulnerability did not have greater geographic access to medications for opioid use disorder and the mismatch between vulnerability and medication access was greatest in suburban communities. Rural communities had poor geographic access to all three medications regardless of vulnerability. Future disaster preparedness planning should include anticipation of access to medications for opioid use disorder and better match the location of services to communities with greater vulnerability to prevent inequities in opioid overdose deaths.

ENHANCING FORECAST-BASED DISASTER RESPONSE IN NEPAL

Implementation of humanitarian actions in advance of a disaster event is a new approach to enhance overall effectiveness of disaster responses. Early actions following forecasts and early warnings can significantly reduce disaster losses and the cost of disaster recovery. Evidence from pilot projects reveal potential to integrate forecast-based humanitarian actions into disaster preparedness planning. Building on advanced technologies, it has been possible to predict disaster risk of many meteorological and hydrological hazards like heavy rainfall, storm surges, flood, drought and cyclones. Nepal has developed communitycentered, end to end flood early warning systems, which have utilised different global and regional weather forecasting models. The models have the capability to provide weather and flood scenarios three days in advance. In this study, we carefully examine current practices and approaches to explore opportunities to use weather forecasts, flood alerts and warning to inform forecast-based humanitarian actions. Furthermore, we analysed existing policy provisions and legal mandates in Nepal to assess the availability of enabling environment needed for adopting forecast-based humanitarian actions. We also present our learning from piloting this approach to disaster preparedness planning in 19 selected districts of Nepal. Our findings suggest that adequate legal provisions and appropriate institutional mechanisms are essential to ensure effective implementation of forecastbased early actions. It is important and urgent to depart from traditional post-event relief approach to a risk-informed preventive decision-making. Technological limitations and operational gaps between agencies are major barriers to proactive actions. The challenges can be overcome through sufficient legal provisions, technical guidelines and protocols to clarify roles, responsibilities and accountabilities of the authorities.

Emergency Preparedness within the Hotel Industry: A Case Study of Wuhan City, China

The hospitality industry is one of the most vulnerable to emergency events and can be highly affected by various hazards. Within the hospitality industry, hotels are faced with multi-crises and disasters. Emergency preparedness is one of the most efficient ways to deal with emergencies and increase the resilience of the businesses, especially in high-risk areas. This research aims to identify the main risks that may threaten hotels and investigate the state of emergency preparedness of “five-star” hotels in Wuhan city, China, by conducting interviews among general manager and sending questionnaires to safety and security managers in the hotel sectors. Findings show that Wuhan’s hotels are exposed to a wide range of risks, and all of the respondent five-star hotels have plans or frameworks prepared for crises and disasters. Results indicate that there is an overall high level of preparedness for crises and disasters in five-star hotels in Wuhan, China. Findings also reveal that many of the challenges facing hoteliers are connected to emergency communication and tourist-oriented disaster preparedness planning. On the basis of the results, implications are discussed. It is hoped that this paper will shed light on emergency preparedness for hotel industry.

Natural Disaster Preparedness Planning: Synchronizing Artificial Intelligence with a New Set of Leadership Skills for Generating an Inclusive Strategy in a Remote Workplace

An increasing number of major hurricanes, flooding, and wildfires has introduced an unusual amount of uncertainty and thus changes in our daily lives. However, one positive outcome is that they have also resulted in new opportunities to re-examine past approaches for planning to survive a natural disaster. A critical behavior practiced by inclusive leaders is to seek new ideas and perspectives from co-workers who have different values, expectations, and goals. Being receptive to different views enables organizational leaders to challenge the way they personally perceive how future practices and policies can be designed when planning to survive a natural disaster. However, particularly in the private sector, one sobering account has been the social cost of not convening face-to-face in our daily working environments whereby a free exchange of ideas is less likely to occur. This purpose of this theoretical paper is to propose a new skill set for those leaders working with remote co-workers when designing a plan for natural disaster preparedness for their organizations.

KESIAPAN WARGA SEKOLAH DALAM MENGHADAPI BENCANA BANJIR BANDANG DI SMA NEGERI 2 BOGOR

Disaster preparedness in schools is still on the minimum level, whereas schools necessarily are the centers of teaching and learning activities to give proper education for the nation’s better future. The purpose of this research is to analyze the preparedness of SMAN 2 Bogor to face flash flood disaster, and to analyze the impact of its occurrence. This research uses qualitative method, and the locus is Sukaresmi Village, Tanah Sareal Sub-district, Bogor City, West Java. The data is obtained from predetermined informants and analyzed by qualitative analysis technique. The parameters used in the analysis are knowledge and attitude parameters, policies and guidelines, emergency response plans, disaster warning systems, also resource mobilization. The results show that disaster preparedness in SMAN 2 Bogor is held by using various resources of school residents and supporting facilities, yet it has not been maximally done to increase the capacity of students and other elements of SMAN 2 Bogor. In general, schools only focus on the academic achievement, which ultimately leads to the lack of sensitivity toward people’s welfare needs. Awareness of disaster preparedness should not be owned only by the students, but also by educators, officials, and all elements of the school. However, this research analysis focuses more on the students. The unawareness of disaster preparedness planning is the main factor which makes the socialization and capacity improvement can not be done sustainably. Co-ordination and consultation with Provincial Government and Regional Disaster Management Agency is the necessary thing to do for the disaster prepardness planning.

CEO Effectiveness For Leading Pre-Event Natural Disaster Preparedness Planning To Meet The Needs Of Employees And Their Families

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: none;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt; mso-themecolor: text1;">The findings of this study suggest that there appears to be some disparity among managers in their perceptions to the degree of the effectiveness of their CEO in leading organizational natural disaster preparedness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this regard, there appears to be agreement among managers that their leadership has been effective in putting into place practices to assess current risks and to have a back-up infrastructure in place to resume operations quickly once a natural disaster hits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, they generally disagree that their organizations are prepared to support the individual needs of employees and their families during a natural disaster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span>

Community Engagement and Pediatric Disaster Readiness in a Large Urban Disaster Resource Hospital Network: The Case of “The Great California ShakeOut”

ABSTRACTWe examined the response of 11 Los Angeles County (LAC) hospitals designated as Disaster Resource Centers (DRCs) to a statewide, earthquake preparedness drill, LAC's most comprehensive earthquake disaster drill to date. Semistructured interviews were conducted with the coordinators of 11 of the 14 LAC DRCs within 3 weeks of the drill. Interviews were transcribed and thematic analysis was supported by analytical software (Atlas.ti). Except for one pediatric specialty DRC, most DRCs did little to fully test their institutions' capacity to manage pediatric patients. Few DRCs included children as mock victims. Little or no attention was focused on pediatric triage and other pediatric clinical, psychosocial, and resource issues. Respondents maintained that community readiness is hampered by compartmentalizing the preparedness planning, training, and drilling. Without a mandate to coordinate with other agencies, few DRCs reported coordination with other community entities. Those that did were in smaller submunicipalities within LAC. Community coordination is critical to effective response to disasters, yet disaster preparedness planning and drills are most often uncoordinated and compartmentalized. Drills and training need to be transdisciplinary and coordinated with other community entities likely to play a role in pediatric disaster management.(Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2012;6:182–186)