Law in Motion or Passionate Observer on the Shelf? The Ghanaian Disaster Experience

Author(s):  
Olivia Anku-Tsede ◽  
Believe Quaqoo Dedzo ◽  
Michael Asiedu Gyensare ◽  
Aaron Makafui Ametorwo
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Raya Muttarak ◽  
Wiraporn Pothisiri

In this paper we investigate how well residents of the Andaman coast in Phang Nga province, Thailand, are prepared for earthquakes and tsunami. It is hypothesized that formal education can promote disaster preparedness because education enhances individual cognitive and learning skills, as well as access to information. A survey was conducted of 557 households in the areas that received tsunami warnings following the Indian Ocean earthquakes on 11 April 2012. Interviews were carried out during the period of numerous aftershocks, which put residents in the region on high alert. The respondents were asked what emergency preparedness measures they had taken following the 11 April earthquakes. Using the partial proportional odds model, the paper investigates determinants of personal disaster preparedness measured as the number of preparedness actions taken. Controlling for village effects, we find that formal education, measured at the individual, household, and community levels, has a positive relationship with taking preparedness measures. For the survey group without past disaster experience, the education level of household members is positively related to disaster preparedness. The findings also show that disaster related training is most effective for individuals with high educational attainment. Furthermore, living in a community with a higher proportion of women who have at least a secondary education increases the likelihood of disaster preparedness. In conclusion, we found that formal education can increase disaster preparedness and reduce vulnerability to natural hazards.


Author(s):  
Yangyang Chen ◽  
Qingliang Fan ◽  
Xin Yang ◽  
Leon Zolotoy

2021 ◽  
pp. 101053952110121
Author(s):  
Bee Seok Chua ◽  
Getrude Cosmas ◽  
Norkiah Arsat

Nurses’ preparedness has been very important for them to treat patients effectively during the COVID-19 pandemic and serve the community. Nurses provide a vital role in mitigating the effects of health crises. In order to help nurses better understand their skills, abilities, and knowledge, as well as the actions that they should take to manage care, the research aims of this study are to (1) investigate the level of preparedness, readiness, and anxiety among nurses during the COVID-19 outbreak in Sabah, Malaysia; (2) examine the effects of various differences in preparedness and readiness among nurses; and (3) examine the effect of COVID-19 preparedness on anxiety among nurses. The results revealed that the nurses were moderately competent in managing the COVID-19 care situation. Each of the 3 differentiating characteristics (age, work experience, and previous disaster experience) did not predict how nurses would manage COVID-19 preparedness significantly. Besides, we also found only 2 dimensions of preparedness (familiarity with epidemiology and surveillance and familiarity with psychological issues) significantly predicted nurses’ anxiety levels. Familiarity with epidemiology and surveillance predicted nurses’ anxiety positively; in contrast, familiarity with psychological issues negatively influenced nurses’ anxiety.


2021 ◽  
pp. 101928
Author(s):  
Yangyang Chen ◽  
Qingliang Fan ◽  
Xin Yang ◽  
Wang Yanan ◽  
Leon Zolotoyt

Author(s):  
Ziyi Wang ◽  
Ziqiang Han ◽  
Lin Liu ◽  
Shaobin Yu

Household preparedness is essential for resilience-building and disaster risk reduction. Limited studies have explored the correlations between place attachment, self-efficacy, and disaster preparedness, especially in the east Asian cultural context. This study investigates the mediating role of self-efficacy between place attachment and disaster preparedness based on data from the 2018 Shandong General Social Survey (N = 2181) in China. We categorized the preparedness behaviors into three specific clusters: material, behavioral and awareness preparedness. Multiple linear regressions and the Sobel Goodman tests were employed to estimate the correlations with the control of necessary confounding variables such as disaster experience, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. The results demonstrate that both the place attachment and self-efficacy are correlated with higher degrees of overall preparedness and all three types of preparedness, and self-efficacy plays a mediating role between place attachment and disaster preparedness. These findings highlight the importance of promoting place attachment and self-efficacy in the advocacies and outreach activities of disaster preparedness.


Author(s):  
H. Wayne Nelson ◽  
Bo Kyum Yang ◽  
F. Ellen Netting ◽  
Erin Monahan

AbstractThe high elder care death toll of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, pushed the federally mandated Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program (LTCOP) into the unsought and unforeseen realm of disaster preparedness. This new role was an extension of the LTCOP’s historic resident’s rights investigative case advocacy. To assess if, how, and to what extent local ombudsmen adapted to this new function, 102 local LTCOP leaders completed a telephone survey based on the CMS Emergency Planning Checklist. This assessed their own and their programs’: (a) readiness to help facilities reduce disaster threats to residents, (b) familiarity with relevant disaster laws, rules, and resources; (c) readiness to help residents through the disaster cycle; and (d) levels of disaster training and/or their plans to provide such training to their staff and LTC stakeholders. Forty-two respondents (41.13%) had experienced a public disaster but over half or those responding (n = 56, 54.90%) felt fairly to somewhat prepared to help in a public crisis. After being ready to work away from their office during a crisis ($\overline{x}$ = 4.14, SD = 1.00) respondents felt most prepared “to assist during nursing home emergency closure and evacuation” ($\overline{x}$ = 3.86, SD = 1.09). t-tests revealed that respondents with a disaster experience were significantly more prepared in all assessed dimensions than as those without disaster experience. The study highlights the training needs of ombudsmen in high risk areas to better prepare them for disaster mitigation in nursing homes.


Author(s):  
Da-Hye Yeon ◽  
Ji-Bum Chung ◽  
Dong-Hyeon Im

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors of disaster experience that impact the effectiveness of disaster education on school students (children and teens). Following the magnitude 5.4 Pohang earthquake in 2017, Pohang City Hall conducted a school earthquake disaster education program over a period of four months (August to November) in 2018. Professors and graduate students from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology taught around 5000 middle and high school students, while also conducting surveys. The experiences of the Pohang earthquake were analyzed and divided into cognitive responses and emotional responses. Students who felt activated emotional responses, surprise and fear, but not joy, tended to have more effective educational experiences. On the other hand, unpleasant emotional reactions, such as anger and sadness, had a negative effect on educational effectiveness. The cognitive response, which is perceived intensity in this research, did not impact educational effectiveness significantly. These results imply that the emotional responses of students are more important than their cognitive responses in providing a disaster education program. This means that even though an earthquake may be small in magnitude and may not cause physical damage, we still need to provide immediate disaster education to the children and teens if they are surprised and afraid of future disasters.


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