Disaster Response and Recovery: Strategies and Tactics for Resilience, 2nd Edition

6

CARING FOR THE INJURED, DEAD, AND DISTRAUGHT

Overcoming Physical and Emotional Impacts

Starting Point

Pretest to assess your knowledge on caring for the injured, dead, and distraught.Determine where you need to concentrate your effort.

What You'll Learn in This Chapter

• The need for and types of search and rescue operations
• Behavior of those participating in search and rescue
• Emergency medical care and the ethical debate surrounding triage
• The challenges regarding mass fatality incidents
• The psychological impact of disasters

After Studying This Chapter, You'll Be Able To

• Compare and contrast types of search and rescue operations.
• Categorize types of human behaviors in search and rescue operations.
• Examine the need for emergency medical care operations.
• Determine the steps that can be taken to manage mass fatality incidents effectively.
• Understand the common signs of PTSD/CIS.

Goals and Outcomes

• Choose an appropriate search and rescue method.
• Predict and respond to human behavior in search and rescue operations.
• Estimate potential injuries in disasters the type of medical assistance they will require.
• Manage mass fatality incidents.
• Evaluate and support victims and personnel who are suffering from PTSD/CIS.

INTRODUCTION

In a disaster situation, you must understand that emergency workers and volunteers will rush to the scene to rescue anyone who is trapped and assist the injured. In many cases, these emergency medical personnel and rescuers are successful in extracting those ...