Disaster Recovery: Post-earthquake physical rehabilitation

Published on: 2018/05/28

Abstract

Disasters are responsible for mortality and morbidity of human lives. They cause a set back to the whole affected and surrounding area.

Interest Category

Disaster recovery, post-disaster rehabilitation

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Disaster recovery

Disasters are devastating for individuals, families and also an economy. Nobody can predict the occurrence of a disaster. It leads to sudden loss of lives or leaves many seriously injured. Disasters alter the quality of life of a person, especially if the disaster-stricken society is economically backward, it deteriorates their lives beyond recovery.

For a person who is physically injured, he/ she needs to cope up with a lot of changes in their lives. It can be emotionally wrenching to have a body part amputated and in most cases, there will be a loss of life within their families. So, a patient in these turmoils, need to be given emotional support to handle the stress caused by a disaster.

Disaster recovery and disaster response

Emergency response team play a crucial role in providing rehabilitation interventions after a disaster. There might be many who become impaired in various ways during and after a disaster, especially after an earthquake. In order to provide quick assistance to the injured, the following things have to be in place:

Coordination between various groups: creating groups for injury, rehabilitation, and disability within the healthcare group would help in coordination and helps to specialists to concentrate on a certain group of injury or disability. The disaster response professionals also need to coordinate with the government authorities to get relief quickly.
Social network: A society comprises of people with different languages, religion, and size. The disaster response team has to work along with local bodies, or organizations or volunteers in disaster recovery. Sometimes, these local organizers or volunteers may not be aware of standards of rehabilitation. In order to provide proper disaster recovery, these organizers or volunteers have to be trained and they should be aware of international standards for rehabilitation.

Recent development in disaster medicine:

Recent developments in disaster rehabilitation and disaster medicine have improved the awareness of the importance of rehabilitation intervention post-disaster. The International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM) is the international society that aims to evaluate the role of medical rehabilitation post-disaster. The WHO’s Committee on Rehabilitation Relief (CRDR) was formed in the year 2009. The main aim of this committee is improved integration of physical and rehabilitation medicine (PRM), into the emergency response.