Disaster health

Australian Disaster Resilience Handbook Collection: Handbook 1

In 2011, Handbooks were introduced to better align the Series with the National Strategy for Disaster Resilience. Compiled by practitioners with management and service-delivery experience in a range of disaster events, the handbooks comprised principles, strategies and actions to help the management and delivery of support services in a disaster context.

This manual is designed to give an overview of the principles and practices associated with disaster health. It has been developed as a starting point for people with an interest in disaster health in the Australian context and to provide a platform from which further study and education can be built.

The manual is split into four main sections:

• Secion 1 considers disasters in the Australian context including the types of disasters that affect Australians as well as the health arrangements in place to deal with them.
• Section 2 looks at some important disaster health concepts. This includes concepts such as surge, risk, resilience and the approaches to emergency management.
• Section 3 focuses on the more practical aspects of disaster health such as triage, transportation, mental health, and Australian Medical Assistant Teams, among others.
• Section 4 highlights other issues relating to disaster health including ethical issues and training needs. Many of the chapters provide key texts to enhance the reader’s knowledge on a particular topic, as well as references that can be used as more detailed background reading. A number of the key resources are also listed below.