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Health, Cultural, Social, and Economic Barriers Affecting Safety, Health, and Recovery
Health services are a social determinant and barrier that affects community health, safety, and recovery efforts. Lack or limited access to health services can significantly affect a community’s safety during a disaster (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2020). This is because injured people who require urgent health services may not find may remain unattended, leading to more chronic illnesses or death. Other health barriers include the high cost of healthcare, limited language access due to diversity, and lack of insurance coverage.
There are cultural barriers to community safety, health, and recovery efforts. These may include educational level, cultural identity, and geography. Low education levels in the community can be a barrier to community safety, health, and recovery efforts (Hinton, 2018). People with low educational levels are likely not to be informed about disasters and the actions to take in case of one. This may slow down the recovery process making more people suffer in the disaster. Cultural identity is also important in safety and recovery because the recovery team must understand the local culture to facilitate a quick recovery process (Hinton, 2018). The geographical region affects the impact and frequency of disasters. For instance, people on islands are more prone to tornadoes and other disasters.
Social factors are also key players in determining how recovery services will be conducted, safety, and health. These include the physical conditions of the environment, such as age, where the people live, and work, because they significantly impact the health and recovery efforts (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2020). Children and the aged are more vulnerable to disasters compared to middle-aged individuals.
Economic factors such as income, employment levels, and social support affect the safety and recovery processes. People with low income and poverty are likely to create a barrier to safety, health, and recovery because of poor structures, and lack of emergency funds which places them at high risk of getting affected (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2020). Low employment levels also imply poverty, hence a lack of enough funds to facilitate healthcare seeking.
How a Disaster Recovery Plan Helps to Overcome The Disparities
The recovery plan has checked into these disparities and marginalized populations of Valley city and come up with solutions to their problems. According to the recovery plan, the aged, disabled, and children will be given priority in the disaster recovery plan. This policy was made to ensure that it eliminates the social determinant of age because these are the most vulnerable people in the community (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2020). The other policy was that the recovery plan would be covered by the local media, which will help to spread information about the plan. Informing the population of the general plan sheds some light to them on how to react and the actions to take in case of a disaster. This policy was made to tackle the educational barrier in the recovery process. When people are educated and know what to do in a disaster, it makes it easier to conduct recovery processes because there is some order in society. To avoid the lack of healthcare services, the hospital’s bed capacity has been increased to 300 to cater to the extra demand in case of a disaster. The hospital has also arranged to add more supplies to its premises to avoid running low supply in an emergency. Additionally, the proposed solution has addressed the issue of nurse shortage by notifying FEMA so that there is a quick deployment of nurses in the community in case of an emergency. These solutions will ensure that the problem of health barriers is successfully addressed.
The Impact of Health and Government Policies on Disaster Recovery Efforts
There are various health and governmental policies that help in facilitating recovery efforts. The public health sector has put in place policies regarding preparedness, response, and recovery, which help in times of disaster. According to the public health policy, healthcare facilities should have a working and up-to-date disaster recovery policy (Sledge & Thomas, 2019). These policies include a combination of stakeholders and the roles they can take in an emergency. They also highlight the populations that should be given priority and healthcare actions to prepare for any disaster. These policies help keep healthcare facilities ready for emergencies during a disaster, hence facilitating disaster recovery efforts.
In the last decades, there have also been governmental policies that are essential in facilitating disaster recovery efforts. Some of the common governmental policies in the US that addressed disaster mitigation include Presidential Policy Directive 8: National Preparedness, and the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Strategy, the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the Post-Katrina Emergency Reform Act of 2006, the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000, and the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Finucane et al., 2020). These policies have varying authorities; however, they are all based on providing help and distributing essential service providers to disaster areas. For instance, the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act authorizes the declaration of major emergency services and the distribution of aid to families and individuals from non-governmental and governmental organizations (Finucane et al., 2020). This shows that government policies help in disaster recovery efforts.
How to Overcome Communication Barriers Using Evidence-Based Strategies
Various strategies can be used to overcome the challenge of the communication barrier and enhance interprofessional communication in a disaster. Interprofessional communication is important because it helps to provide collaborative assistance to the victims. One of the strategies is using language boards to communicate (Pressman, 2019). Communication may be a challenge during a disaster due to the breakdown of communication lines or language barriers. However, language boards can help save lives and communicate between interprofessional teams. According to a study conducted at the University of North Washington, language boards are highly effective types of communication during disasters (Jillson et al., 2019). They help victims in critical conditions to communicate with other professionals. For instance, Kwikpoint is a book used by medical translators and contains pictures that facilitate communication between healthcare providers and patients. The book has cards with basic emergency-related phrases and images where the victim can choose if they cannot talk. This strategy helps to facilitate communication between patients who are critically ill.
Another strategy that can be used is having a separate communication network for crisis management. Technical problems in communication networks are very common during a disaster, requiring professionals to have an alternative communication network to coordinate activities. This method was effective during the 1991 Weybourne leaking ship incident when people made hundreds of calls which led to an overload of telephone lines. The professionals had to use a separate line to communicate, which proved to be helpful as they could communicate securely. Therefore creating a separate communication line is another strategy that can help in disasters.
References
Finucane, M. L., Acosta, J., Wicker, A., & Whipkey, K. (2020). Short-Term solutions to a long-term challenge: Rethinking disaster recovery planning to reduce vulnerabilities and inequities. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(2), 482. Web.
Hinton, E. (2018). Beyond Health Care: The role of social determinants in promoting health and health equity. KAISER FAMILY FOUNDATION. Web.
Jillson, I. A., Clarke, M., Allen, C., Waller, S., Koehlmoos, T., Mumford, W., Jansen, J., McKay, K., & Trant, A. (2019). Improving the science and evidence base of disaster response: a policy research study. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1). Web.
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2020). Determinants of health. Healthypeople.gov. Web.
Pressman, H. (2019). Overcoming communication barriers in emergency situations: some basic tools. CERV501c3. Web.
Sledge, D., & Thomas, H. F. (2019). From disaster response to community recovery: non-governmental entities, government, and public health. American Journal of Public Health, 109(3), 437–444. Web.
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