In recent years the problem of homelessness has escalated into a critical social issue stimulating a wave of concern from the voluntary sector, pressure groups and policy makers. As shopfronts, underpasses and doorways are transformed into hotels for the needy, the shock of homelessness becomes ever more public. These homeless people are the most vulnerable sector of the population to illness and disease and, as they are not part of the system, they are the most isolated from the welfare services.

This book provides an introduction to the field of human factors for individuals who are involved in the delivery and/or improvement of prehospital emergency care and describes opportunities to advance the practical application of human factors research in this critical domain. Relevant theories of human performance, including systems engineering principles, teamwork, training, and decision making are reviewed in light of the needs of current day prehospital emergency care. The primary focus is to expand awareness human factors and outlay the potential for novel and more effective solutions to the issues facing prehospital care and its practitioners.

Provides an understanding, in the light of both political and economic developments, of what has been happening to NHS managers and professionals in the last decade. The book also explains the basis for various recommendations and related developments.

Provides up-to-date coverage of current thinking on rationing. The first part of the book consists of a series of debates between leading authorities putting forward their views for and against some of the most controversial issues in healthcare, such as rationing by age, and the role of central government. The second part makes suggestions for action, drawing comparisons with health care systems overseas, on the ethical uses of resources, the rationing of drugs by hospitals, and the role of citizens' juries. The book should be of interest to healthcare workers, managers, public health physicians and health economists.

NCTE-CCCC Best Book in Technical or Scientific Communication 2020 Rhetorical Work in Emergency Medical Services: Communicating in the Unpredictable Workplace details how communicators harness the power of rhetoric to make decisions and communicate in unpredictable contexts. Grounded in a 16-month study in the emergency medical services (EMS) workplace, this text contributes to our theoretical, methodological, and practical understandings of the situation-specific processes that communicators and researchers engage in to respond to the urgencies and constraints of high-stakes workplaces. This book presents these intricate processes and skills-learned and innate-that workplace communicators use to accomplish goal-directed activity, collaborate with other communicators, and complete and teach workplace writing.

Urban Emergency Management: Planning and Response for the 21st Century takes the concepts and practices of emergency management and places them in the context of the complex challenges faced by the contemporary city. Cities provide unique challenges to emergency managers. The concentrated population and often dense layering of infrastructure can be particularly susceptible to disasters-both natural and human-caused. The book provides guidance across all phases of emergency management, including prevention and all-hazards approaches.

This book is based on a public-health approach to the provision of water and sanitation in emergencies: an approach that is information-based and people-based. It emphasizes the need for a coordinated and phased response, which adapts to meet constantly changing needs. Two kinds of reader will find it useful: non-technical managers of disaster-relief programmes, who need to understand how water supply and sanitation works; and technicians and engineers, who need to see their work in a broader context and make decisions based on principles of equity and participation. Topics include site-selection, disposal of excreta and solid waste, drainage, and hygiene promotion. The text draws on Oxfam's years of practical experience in this field, and on the recommendations of the Sphere Project on Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response.

The baby boom generation were born between 1946 and 1964 and are the largest population cohort in US history. They should number about 90 million by mid-century, more than doubling their current size. The massive increase in seniors and relative decline of those of working age in the US is mirrored in almost all the world's most populous countries. This book connects the dots between the US baby boom generation and the marked increase in natural and human-caused disasters. It evaluates options available to seniors, their aids, for and not-for and for-profit organizations and government to reduce vulnerability to hazard events. These include coordinated planning, risk assessment, regulations and guidelines, education, and other risk management efforts. Using interviews with experts, cases studies, especially of Superstorm Sandy, and literature, it culls best practice and identify major gaps. It is original in successfulness in making the connection between the growing group of vulnerable US seniors, environmental events, and risk management practices in order to isolate the most effective lessons learned.

Large-Scale Evacuation introduces the reader to the steps involved in evacuation modelling for towns and cities, from understanding the hazards that can require large-scale evacuations, through understanding how local officials decide to issue evacuation advisories and households decide whether to comply, to transportation simulation and traffic management strategies. The author team has been recognized internationally for their research and consulting experience in the field of evacuations. Collectively, they have 125 years of experience in evacuation, including more than 140 projects for federal and state agencies. The text explains how to model evacuations that use the road transportation network by combining perspectives from social scientists and transportation engineers, fields that have commonly approached evacuation modelling from distinctly different perspectives. In doing so, it offers a step-by-step guide through the key questions needed to model an evacuation and its impacts to the evacuation route system as well as evacuation management strategies for influencing demand and expanding capacity. The authors also demonstrate how to simulate the resulting traffic and evacuation management strategies that can be used to facilitate evacuee movement and reduce unnecessary demand. Case studies, which identify key points to analyze in an evacuation plan, discuss evacuation termination and re-entry, and highlight challenges that someone developing an evacuation plan or model should expect, are also included. This textbook will be of interest to researchers, practitioners, and advanced students.

Emergency managers and officials have seen a tremendous increase in the planning responsibilities placed on their shoulders over the last decade. Crisis Management and Emergency Planning: Preparing for Today's Challenges supplies time-tested insights to help communities and organizations become better prepared to cope with natural and manmade disasters and their impacts on the areas they serve. Author and editor Michael J. Fagel, PhD, CEM has more than three decades of experience in emergency management and emergency operations. He has been an on-site responder to such disaster events as the Oklahoma City Bombing and the site of the World Trade Center in the aftermath of 9/11. He is an experienced professor, trainer, professional, and consultant and has pretty much seen it all. The book delves into this experience to present advanced emergency management and response concepts to disasters not often covered in other publications. It includes coverage of planning and preparedness, public health considerations, vulnerability and impact assessments, hospital management and planning, sporting venue emergency planning, and community preparedness including volunteer management. Contributions from leading professionals in the field focus on broad responses across the spectrum of public health, emergency management, and mass casualty situations. The book provides detailed, must-read planning and response instruction on a variety of events, identifying long-term solutions for situations where a community or organization must operate outside its normal daily operational windows. This book has been selected as the 2014 ASIS Book of the Year.

As a relatively young field, emergency management has already undergone considerable evolution and change. And now that Web 2.0 technologies and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have become inherently ingrained in all facets of our lives, emergency managers must once again re-evaluate best practices and standardized approaches. Providing a roadmap for twenty-first century emergency management best practices, Leadership in the Open: A New Paradigm in Emergency Management examines public expectations relative to the use of communication and Web 2.0 technologies for emergency management activities. It covers current technologies along with the public's demand for transparency and ever-increasing need for instant information and updates. The book is divided into three sections that focus on the fundamentals of social media, the potential effects of its strategic use in disaster management, and the attitude of engagement that is effective for community commitment. Coverage includes efficiency, magnification, humility, creativity, ethics, the tension of changing public expectations, and long-standing best practices within the emergency management community. This book builds on the author's bestseller, Disasters 2.0: The Application of Social Media Systems for Modern Emergency Management, by looking at an emergency manager's role not simply by job function, but on what the public demands. Filled with extensive real-world examples, this is an ideal guide for leaders in emergency management, first-response, and business continuity-as well as advanced level students preparing to enter the field.

One of the four core phases of emergency management, hazard mitigation is essential for reducing disaster effects on human populations and making communities more resilient to the impacts of hazards. Presenting an up-to-date look at the changing nature of disasters, Natural Hazard Mitigation offers practical guidance on the implementation and selection of hazard mitigation programs and projects. Based on real-world applications, the book includes case studies that present a thorough explanation of the various issues involved. The contributors describe the value and potential of mitigation efforts and explain how to convince public officials and communities of that value. They also discuss how to better involve the community and uniquely tailor solutions to regional and local situations. The book begins with an overview of the history of hazard mitigation with a focus on the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000. It examines where hazard mitigation fits into emergency management and addresses some of the challenges that can arise in navigating the various intergovernmental relationships involved in hazard mitigation. The remaining chapters explore: Public-private partnerships for hazard mitigation at the local level The role currently played by the private sector and how communities can best make use of contractors How to maximize the use of the National Flood Insurance Program and the Community Ratings System Risk communications as a key component of encouraging hazard mitigation Legal issues relevant to hazard mitigation Ways to actively engage the community and how to advocate for hazard mitigation policy How state and local governments can promote and fund mitigation without utilizing federal dollars The challenges associated with volunteers and how to best make use of this resource The area analysis as an innovative means of addressing flood risk at the block or neighborhood level The book includes learning objectives, key terms, and end-of-chapter questions to enhance comprehension. It concludes with a discussion of tools that local practitioners can use and provides an appendix with additional links and resources. This volume is an essential reference for both students and professionals in the ongoing effort to better prepare communities against the effects of natural hazards.

In one enquiry after another, there has been a call for an increase in the proportion of qualified staff in residential child care services, as one of a range of solutions to the difficulties that have beset the service. Leadership in Residential Child Care compares and assesses courses available for professional social work training and explores the ways that training contributes to the quality of care in the sector. Drawing on an evaluation of the Residential Child Care Initiative, the authors examine the dilemmas concerning the provision of qualification training for residential care staff today. They address issues such as:

• the loss of qualified staff from the sector
• different models of ‘professional competence’ that qualification seeks to achieve
• the role qualification and training can play in enhancing the status of what is sometimes seen as the ‘Cinderella’ element in child care provision

Around the world, extreme weather events are becoming increasingly "the new normal" and are expected to increase in the 21st century as a result of climate change. Extreme weather events have devastating impacts on human lives and national economies. This book examines ways to protect people from hazards using early warning systems, and includes contributions from experts from four different continents representing 14 different universities, 8 government agencies and two UN agencies. Chapters detail critical components of early warning systems, ways to identify vulnerable communities, predict hazards and deliver information. Unique satellite images illustrate the transnational impact of disasters, while case studies provide detailed examples of warning systems. With contributors from the fields of economics, ethics, meteorology, geography and biology, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in disaster risk reduction or climate change.

In most people's minds, ambulances are best avoided-we pull over to let them pass, perhaps briefly thanking the universe that the day's events have not necessitated our own swift passage to the ER, and then we go on with business as usual. But have you ever wondered, as that siren screeches by, what it would be like to work as a paramedic, when the most dire emergency is just another day at the office? In A Paramedic's Tales, Graeme Taylor reveals all-from the humorous to the horrific. Not knowing what's around the bend makes for a fast-paced adventure every time a paramedic goes on duty. Taylor, who worked as a paramedic for twenty-one years in Vancouver's Lower Mainland, the BC Interior and Victoria, shares true stories that are both gritty and uncensored, yet the compassion and courage of co-workers, patients, strangers-and people who had previously threatened to kill our narrator-shines through the gore. The author writes that as a paramedic, to stop from crying you have to keep laughing, and readers will find themselves doing the same. From the near-daily task of deciding whether to send someone to the ER or the drunk tank, to the occasional miracle, to the just plain ridiculous, readers will gain insight into everyday life in emergency medicine. With stories set across the province, from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside to down the side of a cliff, these rollicking tales explain the perils of life before GPS, what to do if a drunk mob surrounds your ambulance, and how to drive like a paramedic.

For those who could read between the lines, the censored news out of China was terrifying. But the president insisted there was nothing to worry about. Fortunately, we are still a nation of skeptics. Fortunately, there are those among us who study pandemics and are willing to look unflinchingly at worst-case scenarios.

Michael Lewis’s taut and brilliant nonfiction thriller pits a band of medical visionaries against the wall of ignorance that was the official response of the Trump administration to the outbreak of COVID-19. The characters you will meet in these pages are as fascinating as they are unexpected.

A thirteen-year-old girl’s science project on transmission of an airborne pathogen develops into a very grown-up model of disease control. A local public-health officer uses her worm’s-eye view to see what the CDC misses, and reveals great truths about American society. A secret team of dissenting doctors, nicknamed the Wolverines, has everything necessary to fight the pandemic: brilliant backgrounds, world-class labs, prior experience with the pandemic scares of bird flu and swine flu…everything, that is, except official permission to implement their work.

Michael Lewis is not shy about calling these people heroes for their refusal to follow directives that they know to be based on misinformation and bad science. Even the internet, as crucial as it is to their exchange of ideas, poses a risk to them. They never know for sure who else might be listening in.

Mobilising helpers in the event of a flood or letting friends know that you are okay in the event of a terrorist attack - more and more people are using social media in emergency, crisis or disaster situations. Storms, floods, attacks or pandemics (esp. COVID-19) show that citizens use social media to inform themselves or to coordinate. This book presents qualitative and quantitative studies on the attitudes of emergency services and citizens in Europe towards social media in emergencies. Across the individual sub-studies, almost 10,000 people are surveyed including representative studies in the Netherlands, Germany, the UK and Italy. The work empirically shows that social media is increasingly important for emergency services, both for prevention and during crises; that private use of social media is a driving force in shaping opinions for organisational use; and that citizens have high expectations towards authorities, especially monitoring social media is expected, and sometimes responses within one hour. Depending on the risk culture, the data show further differences, e.g. whether the state (Germany) or the individual (Netherlands) is seen as primarily responsible for coping with the situation.

This practical guide about what first responders should do after a suicide, offers advice on identifying and recording a death as suicide, breaking the bad news and dealing with the impact of suicide in the short, middle and long term. Drawing on her own experience as a first responder and trainer, the author provides guidance and tips for best practice when responding to a suicide. These include what can happen to the body in the immediate aftermath, how to talk to the bereaved to limit or prevent secondary trauma, and how to manage suicide in public arenas such as schools. The scenarios covered include detailed scripts of how to deal with difficult situations. There are also sections that tackle complex issues such as religious or cultural customs, and unusual cases of suicide which can pose extra challenges. Straightforward and full of sage advice, each chapter includes real-world examples from the author's many years working as a first responder which highlight how suicide postvention techniques can be applied.

Presents a unique view of social problems and conflicts over urban space from the cab of an ambulance. While we imagine ambulances as a site for critical care, the reality is far more complicated. Social problems, like homelessness, substance abuse, and the health consequences of poverty, are encountered every day by Emergency Medical Services (EMS) workers. Written from the lens of a sociologist who speaks with the fluency of a former Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), Medicine at the Margins delves deeply into the world of EMTs and paramedics in American cities, an understudied element of our health care system. Like the public hospital, the EMS system is a key but misunderstood part of our system of last resort. Medicine at the Margins presents a unique prism through which urban social problems, the health care system, and the struggling social safety net refract and intersect in largely unseen ways. Author Christopher Prener examines the forms of marginality that capture the reality of urban EMS work and showcases the unique view EMS providers have of American urban life. The rise of neighborhood stigma and the consequences it holds for patients who are assumed by providers to be malingering is critical for understanding not just the phenomenon of non- or sub-acute patient calls but also why they matter for all patients. This sense of marginality is a defining feature of the experience of EMS work and is a statement about the patient population whom urban EMS providers care for daily. Prener argues that the pre-hospital health care system needs to embrace its role in the social safety net and how EMSs' future is in community practice of paramedicine, a port of a broader mandate of pre-hospital health care. By leaning into this work, EMS providers are uniquely positioned to deliver on the promise of community medicine. At a time when we are considering how to rely less on policing, the EMS system is already tasked with treating many of the social problems we think would benefit from less involvement with law involvement. Medicine at the Margins underscores why the EMS system is so necessary and the ways in which it can be expanded.

This logbook is designed to allow pre-hospital and emergency care clinicians of all grades to quickly and easily maintain a record of airway skills performed in order to assist in proving competence where required. It includes checklists for essential adjuncts, bag-mask ventilation, extra-glottic devices, endotracheal intubation attempts, needle/surgical airway and other clinical skills. It is not dependent on battery life or data signal and allows for rapid after action logging of pertinent details for a number of skills performed in limited numbers.