AMU Emergency Management Original Public Safety

Resiliency Helps Communities Recover after Mass Casualty Incidents

By Allison G. S. Knox
Contributor, EDM Digest

Mass casualty incidents and the ensuing chaos are complicated to manage. There needs to be a definite correlation between what resources are available and the seriousness of the injuries.

Policies and management systems like the Incident Command System certainly help to facilitate the overall coordination of a mass casualty incident. After every incident, there is usually an investigation and an after-action report that details the lessons learned. Emergency managers use this vital information to strengthen their emergency plans. As a result, many plans have improved greatly over the years.

Mass Casualty Incidents Also Impact an Entire Community

Managing mass casualty situations, however, goes beyond initial emergency actions because these incidents also affect the community at large. That is one reason why we need to look at other issues within the community.

For example, emergency managers should look at what the community could have done differently to better prevent the incident. There is often much more to a mass casualty event than just the incident itself, such as determining the contributing factors that precipitated it.

Social scientists should look for those factors within the community to better understand how and why these tragic incidents occur. With their help and expert research, community resiliency can be strengthened considerably.

Lessons from Mass Casualty Incidents Should Be Incorporated into Future Emergency Management Plans

With mass casualty incidents – whether accidental or intentional – occurring so frequently these days, emergency personnel as well as local government officials need to incorporate into their emergency management plans the various lessons learned from previous incidents.

In addition, it is important to incorporate concepts like adaptability into training for and management of mass casualty incidents. No two events are identical, so  knowing how other first responders have dealt with similar situations will assist in tackling future incidents.

Tightening Community Resiliency

Community resiliency is a sociological concept that says a cohesive, well-connected community will bounce back quickly from a disaster. Churches, for example, are a source of community resilience because congregations come together after a disaster to provide emotional and material support to those affected.

Researching the Social Aspects of a Community

Where communities are concerned, numerous factors play a role in why an incident occurs. It is important to understand where community fault lines may be and how the community can recover.

Recognizing the factors that contribute to a major disaster and the lessons gleaned from after-action reports provide insights that ultimately help emergency management officials to determine better ways to handle future incidents and help the community rapidly recover.

Allison G.S. Knox

Allison G. S. Knox teaches in the fire science and emergency management departments at the University. Focusing on emergency management and emergency medical services policy, she often writes and advocates about these issues. Allison works as an Intermittent Emergency Management Specialist in the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response. She also serves as the At-Large Director of the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians, Chancellor of the Southeast Region on the Board of Trustees with Pi Gamma Mu International Honor Society in Social Sciences, chair of Pi Gamma Mu’s Leadership Development Program and Assistant Editor for the International Journal of Paramedicine. Prior to teaching, Allison worked for a member of Congress in Washington, D.C. and in a Level One trauma center emergency department. She is an emergency medical technician and holds five master’s degrees.

Comments are closed.