A community response to crisis

1. A community response to crisis
Objective
Whenever a crisis occurs whether due to a major, fire, accident or
a natural calamity like earthquake, flood etc. a number of response
actions need to be taken in order to manage the crisis. (Kaufman,
Edwards et all, 2011)

2. Community crisis response
actions
 Find out the site of the crisis and increase response time through
information
 Understand the crisis
 Increase the available resources and infrastructure capacity required to
handle the crisis
 Make a Crisis Response Team

3. Community crisis response
definition
It is a reaction to an event which has occurred, and
which causes psychological trauma to the affected
community, due to damage to humans or property or both,
and requires immediate medical attention due to
disruption of services. Examples include fire, major
accident, natural calamities like earthquake, floods,
cyclones, act of war etc. (Kaufman, Edwards et all, 2011)

4. Community crisis response view
From the healthcare point of view the objective is to
restore the normal services, and minimize the after trauma
affects to the community, and prevent psychological pain
following the occurrence of the crisis. (Hanson and
Wieseler, 2002)
To help the community to return back to normal
routine, and mental and emotional well being. If this is not
done the emotional effects remain, affecting the persons in
their later life, to create unusual behaviors and
developments which may propagate to society. Prepare a
team leader and its members and crisis handling manual of
procedures for use during the crisis. (Brock, 2001)

5. Community crisis response Team
People involved in the response team include:
• A Team leader
• Media Persons
• Community participants
• NGOs
• General Public

6. Team leader responsibility
• Handles the crisis and looks after the safety of the affected
community.
• Acts as a lead to the team offering guidance and directions
wherever needed and charting out a proper plan to manage
the crisis.
• Briefs all the participants about the crisis and give updates
as and when required.
• Maintains appropriate behavior with the participants and
offers support and advice whenever required to do so.

7. The community crisis response
process - I
• Inform the community and concerned authorities and call 911.
• Release an announcement of the crisis to the concerned public.
• Identify the people affected by the crisis
• Identify the resources required to handle the crisis.
• Delegate responsibilities to the team on how to handle the crisis and
replace missing team persons with replacements.

8. The community crisis response
process - II
• Distribute the available resources among the team and the community like
stretchers and other aid equipments appropriately.
• Officially announce to the larger community if it is a major crisis and update
them regularly. Take opinions from the concerned community.
• Review the process regularly to identify deficiencies.

9. Community crisis response Manual
handling process
 Delegate responsibility for storage, retrieval and responsibility
for maintenance and update and download from website or
hard copy availability.
 Study the contents of manual procedures in even of crisis.
 Manual should include a general information, instructions on
the team, actions to be taken in event of death and loss,
natural disasters and other hazards like fire and professional
training of the team and other staff members. It should also
have a information on the type of equipments required to
handle the crisis and the process for the same.

10. Community crisis response
resources
The resources to be utilized in event of a crisis include:
 The procedure manual
 Team leader and team staff
 Equipments available and those required and those to be ordered, like
firefighting equipment, cranes, stretchers, support staff.
 The other staff in the premises for immediate help and support.
 The in-house health care center, nearby hospitals and nurses.

11. Example of a community crisis
I am in college and at around 1: 00 pm in the
afternoon, a staff sees smoke coming out from our office
building and people running out in haste toppling over
each other and fire and he informs me about it.
I manage to reach the site and use my cell phone to
call 911, concerned college authorities and preferably the
fire brigade immediately. I also inform the other people in
the premises and make use of the available resources to
minimize the damage to persons and property, by using
the existing fire control devices, and moving affected
people to safety with help of other staff. After that the
affected person/persons need to be provided with
emergency medical assistance.

12. .
Checklist for action
There are a number of actions that require to be taken
in response to the incident as well as aftermath of the
incident including informing 911 and other actions. Unless
this actions are taken the occurrence may propagate and
damage may spread to other areas on the same location.
Having a proper response measure will limit the damages
and if possible prevent future happenings of the same type
of incidences. (Greene and Dianne, 2006)

13. Checklist of corrective actions
required
• Respond immediately when I get to know of the incident
myself or through information by other persons/staff
members.
• Delegate responsibilities and take the necessary steps to
minimize the impact.
• Monitor the situation and in case of a fire stop it from
spreading to other premises with corrective action.
• Assemble the team and move the affected persons for
treatment and evacuation to safe places with help of the
concerned staff.

14. Community crisis response measures - I
 Stop all office activities and ask other public to stay away
from affected areas unless required for help.
 Brief about the safety measures to all concerned.
 Maintain peace and calm to handle the situation.
 Prevent panic among the affected persons which my
propagate the situation.
 Be vigilant at all times
 Review the safety measures and assure everyone affected
of the actions taken to resolve the crisis.

15. Community crisis response
measures - II
 Take after incident preventive actions so such crises are
avoided in future.
 Enlighten all concerned persons about the situation the
corrective action taken
 Inform the relatives, friends and near and dear ones
information on the persons who were injured or expired in
the incident as well as the concerned authorities.
 Identify the deficiencies that led to the crisis happening
and improvements required, replacement of aged
equipments or facilities that may prevent such crisis to
happen in the future.

16. References
“Crisis as an Opportunity: Organizational and Community Responses to
Disasters “, Roni Kaufman, Richard Edwards, Julia Mirsky and Amos
Avgar. Published by UPA (2011).
“Crisis: Prevention and Response in the Community”, Ronald Halton
Hanson and Norman Anthony Wieseler. Published by American
Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (2002).
“Preparing for Crises in the Schools: A Manual for Building School
Crisis Response Teams”, Stephen E. Brock. Published by Wiley (2001).
“FDNY Crisis Counseling: Innovative Responses to 9/11 Firefighters,
Families, and Communities”. Paul Greene and Dianne Kane. Published
by Wiley (2006).