Health and Social Care in Emergencies and Disasters Report 3 Sample
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Develop a fire disaster preparation plan for a rural aged care facility.
Facility Characteristics
• The facility is based on the Mid-North Coast of New South Wales (or a similar rural location in your State). The facility is inland from the coast and has high-care residents with dementia(s) in addition to lower care residents with mobility and related health issues.
• There is only one road in and out to the facility. It has nearby forest and bush as well as high rainfall at certain times of the year.
• Due to climate change, the seasonal pattern of weather events is not as predictable as it used to be.
Consider the following elements in your plan:
• preventive measures (e.g. landscape management, burn-offs etc.)
• continuity measures (e.g. power, water, food, medications)
• emergency response measures (e.g. evacuation – when, how, to where?)
• resident and workforce safety
• partners in the plan (e.g. local SES and Ambulance Service)
• responsibilities (who makes what decisions?)
• decision-making timeframes (e.g. alert levels, critical events and times)
• Assessment 3: Health and social care in emergencies and disasters
Introduction:
The aged care facility for which the disaster preparation plan is developed is situated in a rural location on the Mid-North Coast of New South Wales. The facility is known to provide care and assistance to dementia patients who are considered to be high-care residents as well as an elderly population with mobility and other health complications as low-care residents. Uni assignment help, It has three floors where each floor has 11 rooms and 4 elderly individual lives in each room. The total strength of the facility is 43 out of which 31 are residents and the remaining are the staff. It has 4 ambulances and 2 cars for 24 hrs assistance. The aged care facility is surrounded by forest and bushes which also has high rainfall throughout the year which increases the risk of fire and flood disasters within the facility. It is also found that the facility is connected to part of the city through one road which serves as the in and out pathway for the facility (Cvetkovi? et al., 2022). Focusing on the environment the locality of the aged care facility along with the climatic condition, the following fire disaster preparedness plan has been developed in order to provide safety and precautious assistance to the residents.
Plan:
Scope and Application:
The aged care facility demands an increased need for a property fire disaster preparation plan due to the increased risk of complications associated with living residential patients. It is because patients living within the aged care facility are either suffering from life-threatening conditions or are vulnerable to mobility. It has been found that cooking is one of the leading causes of fire within care facilities which accounts for 60% of the cases of fire disasters. The aged care facility is situated in NSW which has high bush fire risk due to climatic change. It has also been found that the elderly population sustains an increased risk of mortality associated with fire disasters when compared to the general population. Also, resident aged above 85 years sustains further risk than other patients within an aged care facility. Thus it is necessary that a well-structured preparedness plan is developed and implemented based on prevention, continuity emergency response as well as other safety measures.
Preventive Measures:
Preventive measures account for one of the significant strategies to minimize the risk of fire and associated disasters and thus it is important to analyze the factors as well as eliminate them at a very early stage. In conditions where the risks cannot be minimized or eliminated at an early phase it is necessary to maintain proper precautions measures in order to maintain the safety as well as security of the patients (Shokouhi et al., 2019).
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Continuity Measures:
Continuity measures focus on the efforts and strategies that are performed in order to maintain the continuous supply of resources and facilities associated with the setting. The continuity measures that need to be maintained in the aged care facility during a fire disaster include power supply medication and treatment facility, food and nutrient supply, clean water delivery as well as health associated risk management (Shokouhi et al., 2019).
It will be necessary that proper backup needs to be maintained in order to ensure that food and water appropriately supply it to the residents in case of fire or associated disasters. Medical and treatment facilities need to be arranged and stored in order to ensure stable delivery to the patient in need during the time of disaster and associated crises (Indriani, Prasanti & Permana, 2020).
Emergency Response Measures:
Emergency response measure in aged care facility highly includes evacuation which necessarily highlights the need to evacuate deep patient or resident toward a safe location.
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Resident And Workforce Safety:
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Partners In the Plan:
There is a wide range of stakeholders who need to be accounted as equal partners in the plan in order to develop a well-structured fire disaster preparedness plan as well as conduct safe evacuation of the resident as well as the workforce.
The Local State Emergency Service – the SES functions by helping the general population and communities in order to prepare, respond as well as recover from any kind of natural disaster which can be a flood cyclone fire or earthquake. They conduct active suggest search and rescue operations and emergency service delivery, ensuring preparedness and delivery of safety regulations (Kankanamge, Yigitcanlar & Goonetilleke, 2020).
Fire Brigade: Another chief stakeholder to be an active partner in the plan includes the fire brigade service which will be assisting in case of any disaster they will ensure technical assistance during the disaster in order to avoid any emergency associated with life, property, or the associated hazards. They will ensure humanitarian services to the aged care facility in order to avoid any complications such as uncontrolled fire, collapsed buildings, or emergency rescue (The State of Queensland, 2022).
Ambulance Service- It will be necessary that the preparedness plan includes the involvement of ambulance services as an active partners as they will provide immediate actions and rescue in terms of the health and safety of the disaster victims. The ambulance services deliver pre-hospital care and medical assistance in cases of emergencies which also includes disasters. As the aged care facility is located in a rural setting and is connected by a single road, it will be necessary that immediate rescue assistance and treatment operations are conducted prior to reaching any healthcare facility (Hidayati & Nisak, 2019).
Responsibilities:
Local State Emergency Service: Decides on the strategies and procedures that need to be followed in case of emergency in order to contain safe evacuation of the residents as well as workers (Kankanamge, Yigitcanlar & Goonetilleke, 2020).
Head of the facility: In case of an emergency situation due to a fire disaster it will be necessary that decisions based on safety and evacuation are carried out by the head of the aged care facility in relation to the aged care facility and involved workforce and residents.
Workforce: Further decisions will be made by the workforce based on the health and well-being of the patient as patients with mobility issues must be addressed respectively to health needs whereas dementia patients must be assisted based on their high care demand (The State of Queensland, 2022).
Decision-Making Timeframes:
During a fire disaster, it will be necessary that three chief alert levels need to be followed in order to maintain safe evacuation and minimize life-threatening consequences.
Advice: During the initial alert level it will be necessary to analyze the indication of disaster. It focuses on the that a fire has started in a nearby locality which thus develops no immediate state of danger. In such situations, it will be necessary to remain up to date on the condition and start and start preparing for emergency conditions (NSW Rural Fire Service, 2023). It will be necessary that the workforce working within the aged care facility keeps regular track of the fire and the increased risk.
Watch And Act: Further in the stage of the watch and act it will be necessary to acknowledge that the level of threat or danger has increased to an extent where conditions are changing and the preparedness actions need to be implemented in order to protect the workforce as well as the aged care residents (NSW Rural Fire Service, 2023). In the such condition when the watch and act level has reached, It will be necessary to start preparing for immediate evacuation and assisting patients in preparing themselves for emergency situations.
Emergency Warning: The emergency warning phase highlights the stage of fire where the level of risk is at its peak. In such conditions life-threatening conditions often take place and danger increases with time. Thus in such conditions, it is necessary that immediate precautious actions and evacuation strategies are implemented in order to reach the area of gathering and further and further seek professional help (NSW Rural Fire Service, 2023). In such conditions, any delay in misconduct may lead to a risk to life. As soon as an emergency warning develops it will be necessary that the workforce as well as residents within the setting continue clearing the area based on the provided evacuation strategies in order in order to reach the nearby safe locations.
Emergency Contact:
|
Contact |
Phone number |
|
Ambulance |
000 |
|
Police |
02 6583 0199. |
|
State Emergency Services (SES) |
132 500 |
|
WHS officer |
13 10 50 |
|
First aid officer |
0427 539 382 |
|
COVID-19 information lines |
1800 020 080 |
Conclusion:
The fire disaster preparedness plan focuses on the procedures that need to be followed in order to maintain the safety of the workers as well as the residents in terms of their health and well-being as well as conduct a safe evacuation. The plan instructs and guides the workforce as well as the residents regarding the activities, actions, as well as strategies that need to be maintained in case of fire emergency, emerge and the situation demands immediate evacuation without any casualty.
References:
Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care. (2023, March 16). Service continuity and emergency events in aged care. Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care. Retrieved April 24, 2023, from https://www.health.gov.au/topics/aged-care/providing-aged-care-services/working-in-aged-care/service-continuity-and-emergency-events-in-aged-care
Bongiovanni, I., Leo, E., Ritrovato, M., Santoro, A., & Derrico, P. (2017). Implementation of best practices for emergency response and recovery at a large hospital: A fire emergency case study. Safety science, 96, 121-131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2017.03.016
Cvetkovi?, V. M., Dragaševi?, A., Proti?, D., Jankovi?, B., Nikoli?, N., & Miloševi?, P. (2022). Fire safety behavior model for residential buildings: Implications for disaster risk reduction. International journal of disaster risk reduction, 76, 102981. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.102981
Doke, K., Yuan, Q., Gasco-Hernandez, M., Sutherland-Mitzer, M., Gil-Garcia, J. R., Bogdanov, P., & Zheleva, M. (2020). Supporting Resilience in Rural Emergency Preparedness and Response Through Improved Information Access. GetMobile: Mobile Computing and Communications, 24(2), 5-11. https://doi.org/10.1145/3427384.3427386
Hidayati, J., & Nisak, K. (2019, May). Identify the performance of government agencies for city fire prevention and firefight by the balanced scorecard method (journal review). In IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (Vol. 505, No. 1, p. 012097). IOP Publishing. DOI 10.1088/1757-899X/505/1/012097
Indriani, S. S., Prasanti, D., & Permana, R. S. M. (2020). A Case Study Of The Awareness Of The 2019-20 Bushfire Risk Communication Applied In New South Wales Australia. European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine, 7(1), 3733-3743. Retrieved from: https://ejmcm.com/article_4186_b796c8595cb39d8ce5539b4deae8f89c.pdf
Kankanamge, N., Yigitcanlar, T., & Goonetilleke, A. (2020). How engaging are disaster management related social media channels? The case of Australian state emergency organisations. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 48, 101571. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101571
Kelly, F. E., Bailey, C. R., Aldridge, P., Brennan, P. A., Hardy, R. P., Henrys, P., ... & Taft, D. (2021). Fire safety and emergency evacuation guidelines for intensive care units and operating theatres: for use in the event of fire, flood, power cut, oxygen supply failure, noxious gas, structural collapse or other critical incidents: Guidelines from the Association of Anaesthetists and the Intensive Care Society. Anaesthesia, 76(10), 1377-1391. https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.15511
Kuo, J. Y., Lai, T. Y., & Lee, P. C. (2018). Simulating Evacuation Plan of Fire Disaster Based on Cloud Surveillance System. Journal of Telecommunication, Electronic and Computer Engineering (JTEC), 10(1-15), 131-134. Retrieved from https://jtec.utem.edu.my/jtec/article/view/4059
Lee, P. H., Fu, B., Cai, W., Chen, J., Yuan, Z., Zhang, L., & Ying, X. (2018). The effectiveness of an on-line training program for improving knowledge of fire prevention and evacuation of healthcare workers: A randomized controlled trial. Plos one, 13(7), e0199747. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0199747
McCoy, L., & Field, D. (2022). Lessons from NSW RFS trial of the Australian fire danger rating system. TheAustralian Journal of Emergency Management, 37(4), 55-58. Retrieved from: https://search.informit.org/doi/reader/10.3316/informit.738269919163057
Moore, P. F. (2019). Global wildland fire management research needs. Current Forestry Reports, 5, 210-225. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40725-019-00099-y
NSW Rural Fire Service. (2014). Emergency management and evacuation plan - NSW RFS. Retrieved April 24, 2023, from https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/29271/DPP1079-Emergency-management-and-evacuation-plan-FORM.pdf
NSW Rural Fire Service. (2023). Alert levels. NSW Rural Fire Service. Retrieved April 24, 2023, from https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/plan-and-prepare/alert-levels
Qin, D., Gao, P., Aslam, F., Sufian, M., & Alabduljabbar, H. (2022). A comprehensive review on fire damage assessment of reinforced concrete structures. Case Studies in Construction Materials, 16, e00843. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cscm.2021.e00843
Shokouhi, M., Nasiriani, K., Cheraghi, Z., Ardalan, A., Khankeh, H., Fallahzadeh, H., & Khorasani-Zavareh, D. (2019). Preventive measures for fire-related injuries and their risk factors in residential buildings: a systematic review. Journal of injury and violence research, 11(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.5249%2Fjivr.v11i1.1057
The State of Queensland. (2022, August 29). State Emergency Service. Queensland Government. Retrieved April 24, 2023, from https://www.qld.gov.au/emergency/emergencies-services/response/ses#:~:text=Role%20of%20the%20SES,earthquakes
Zahara, A. (2020). Breathing fire into landscapes that burn: wildfire management in a time of alterlife. Engaging Science, Technology, and Society, 6, 555-585. https://doi.org/10.17351/ests2020.429
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