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Disasters, both natural and human-made, pose significant challenges to public health systems worldwide. This Research Letter examines the latest strategies and interventions in disaster preparedness and response. Our study highlights key practices that enhance the readiness and resilience of healthcare professionals and communities against disasters. The strategies reviewed include comprehensive emergency planning, simulation exercises, continuous education, interagency coordination, community engagement, and technological advancements. Our findings underscore the importance of multifaceted approaches that significantly improve disaster preparedness and response outcomes. This research provides valuable insights into effective disaster management practices and establishes an important foundation for future studies.
This article examines the everyday experiences of the Egyptian minority in Milan, Italy, focusing on challenges arising from the lack of formal recognition for their religious affiliations—Islam and Coptic Orthodoxy—which are central to their ethnic identity. Drawing on Talal Asad’s notion of recognition, Edward Said’s critique of Orientalism, and Nelson Maldonado-Torres’ coloniality framework, it critiques how European policies conflate secularization with security, marginalizing non-European communities. Italy’s legal system highlights this tension: while de jure constitutional protections guarantee religious freedom, de facto bureaucratic and political barriers exclude minority faiths from equal standing. Egyptian migrants must navigate this imbalance, where theoretical rights rarely translate into practical access, forcing them to continually adapt their religious and ethnic identities in a marginalizing society. The article shows how religious invisibility sustains marginalization, contrasting Europe’s multicultural ideals with exclusionary practices. It reveals how colonial legacies shape migrant experiences and restrict rights.
Globally, independent restaurants have been dealt a double blow by COVID-19. Restaurant staff face the risk of infection, and restaurants have been among the businesses hardest hit by urban lockdowns. With fewer resources than corporate chains, small independent restaurants are particularly vulnerable to an extended economic downturn. This paper looks at how independent restaurant owners in Tokyo have coped with the pandemic both individually and as members of larger communities. Both government and community support have been key to sustaining these small businesses and their employees during this crisis.
This chapter analyses household and community mediations of violence in Sierra Leone, which emphasise social relationships over harmony. These non-state dispute resolutions consider overall character rather than specific actions, with (character) witnesses playing vital roles and blame being shared amongst disputing parties. Informal mediations prioritise maintaining social groups over individual or relationship harmony. Grievances are deemed inevitable but must be contained within individuals through rituals like ‘swallowing’ to prevent wider community disruptions. Proximity, gender, and kinship dynamics influence case-dependent assessment, often leading to harsher punishment for women despite their prominence in mediation. The chapter challenges the notion of harmony ideology and emphasises the difficulty of forgiveness. Swallowing grievances aims to preserve relationships and contain conflicts while minimising state interference. Sierra Leoneans must choose between informal and state mediations. Institutions in this legal pluralism highlight different aspects – fact vs context, acts vs character, preservation vs rupture – resulting in different outcomes.
In the aftermath of the 2022 Pakistan flooding, disaster management faced critical challenges, particularly in mental health support. This study analyzed an incident where eighteen internally displaced individuals lost their lives in a bus fire. The current approach involves a comprehensive analysis of the incident, exploring the difficulties encountered in managing relief efforts, and providing mental health support. The study aims were to evaluate existing mental health support mechanisms, to identify challenges in disaster management, and to propose recommendations for future preparedness. Recommendations include enhancing disaster response training, integrating mental health services into primary health care, and prioritizing community resilience. These insights contribute to a deeper understanding of disaster management in resource-constrained regions.
Edited by
Richard Williams, University of South Wales,Verity Kemp, Independent Health Emergency Planning Consultant,Keith Porter, University of Birmingham,Tim Healing, Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London,John Drury, University of Sussex
This chapter summarises how understandings of the role of the public in emergencies have changed over time. It proceeds to outline a conceptual framework, the social identity approach, that has proved fruitful for understanding how the public responds during these events. The focus here is on behaviour. However, social identity processes also have implications for mental health. The chapter explains these connections and points to the other chapters that elaborate on these arguments, with empirical examples.
Edited by
Richard Williams, University of South Wales,Verity Kemp, Independent Health Emergency Planning Consultant,Keith Porter, University of Birmingham,Tim Healing, Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London,John Drury, University of Sussex
Flooding can severely affect wellbeing through both primary stressors and secondary stressors. The impacts may be mitigated by community resilience; this may be used deliberately or unwittingly by people affected and the responsible authorities. Using data from England and Ireland, we address collective psychosocial resilience – that is, the way in which shared social identification allows groups to spontaneously emerge and mobilise solidarity and social support. First, we show that shared social identity can emerge during floods due to experiencing a common fate, and this leads to communities mobilising social support. Second, we show that emergent shared social identity can decline due to a lack of perceived common fate, the disappearance of collective identity, or inequalities experienced after the disaster. However, social identity can be sustained by communities providing social support, by persisting secondary stressors, or intentionally by holding commemorations. Additionally, shared social identity is associated with observed unity.
The occurrence of various forms of disasters has increased worldwide. In South Korea, community resilience is particularly emphasized, especially in response to large-scale disasters in regional and group units. This study investigated the association between community resilience and the quality of life of disaster-affected people, and identified the moderating effects of perception of government relief services.
Methods:
Data from the third long-term survey on the change of life of disaster-affected people conducted in 2018 by the National Disaster Management Research Institute were used. The study selected 1046 participants ages ≥ 19 years from among the disaster-affected people. Statistical analyses were performed using Model 1 of the PROCESS Macro 4.0 in the SPSS program.
Results:
Community resilience positively affected disaster-affected people’s quality of life. The perception of government relief services significantly strengthened the association between community resilience and quality of life.
Conclusions:
The study highlights the importance of enhancing community resilience to improve disaster-affected people’s quality of life and emphasizes the role of perception of government relief services in reinforcing this relationship. Several practical and political measures that focus on improving community resilience and perception of government relief services are suggested to enhance disaster-affected people’s quality of life.
Community-based disaster risk reduction is an effective approach for emergency management to address the needs of communities. This approach focuses on identifying the community-specific needs and context of emergency management in that area to develop technologies that help mitigate effects of disasters. The complex network of community, technology, and user motivation makes it challenging to understand how to encourage users to adopt preparation efforts, as opposed to reactive measures that have been shown to be less effective and can lead to inequitable results. To address this research gap, qualitative interviews were conducted with participants from one medium-sized midwestern city in the United States to understand how community members think about preparation and make decision about adopting preventative technologies. The results of the qualitative analysis reveal that there were 5 main themes that are important to consider when developing technologies for emergency preparedness; Importance of communication during emergencies, the role of technology in emergency management, unequal access to resources, reaction instead of preparation, and motivation to engage in community preparedness and response.
States respond to homeless squatting in empty land by selectively conferring resilience on individuals, groups and/or institutions. In this chapter, we reflect on the role of aggregated or collective claims to state-backed resilience linked to homeless squatting on empty property. Specifically, we consider how interests become aggregated; how aggregation promotes collective consciousness and reaffirms individual claims; and how groups garner state support through the exercise of collective influence or voice. We recognize that the co-option of state actors and agencies to shore up the resilience of the group is not unidirectional but bidirectional. While collective or group interests may seek out state-backed resilience in the form of “other-regarding” state action, states also invoke collective interests to justify or explain their actions, particularly when the state’s own self-interest aligns with the interests or claims of the group. In this chapter we broaden the scope of our “problem topography” by alternately centering a range of networked or aggregated stakeholders: neighbors, market actors, social activists. We explore how collective interests cluster around specific claims; how they exercise influence to secure state action, and also how state actors and institutions justify or explain their responses with reference to the protection of specific group interests. These collective claims are not distinct from, but overlap with the individual claims of owners and squatters, who are themselves simultaneously self-interested individuals and members of networks that share common interests and goals.
This study aimed to investigate the effects of disaster trauma, disaster conflict, and economic loss on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and to verify the moderating effect of personal and community resilience in these relationships. The data of 1914 people, aged 20 or above, who had experienced natural disasters (earthquake, typhoon, flooding) were used.
Methods:
Hayes’s (2013) PROCESS macro (Model 1) was conducted to verify the moderation effect of personal and community resilience between PTSD and disaster trauma, disaster conflict, and economic loss.
Results:
Disaster trauma, disaster conflict, and economic loss were found to be positively related to PTSD. Personal and community resilience were negatively related to PTSD. Resilience had a moderating effect on the relationship between disaster trauma, economic loss, and PTSD. However, there was no moderating effect on the relationship between disaster conflict and PTSD. Community resilience had a moderating effect on the relationship between economic loss and PTSD. However, there was no moderating effect on the relationship between disaster trauma, disaster conflict, and PTSD.
Conclusions:
The results suggest that personal and community resilience could be used for prevention and therapeutic interventions for disaster victims who experience PTSD.
Breast-feeding rates are unsatisfactory in Lebanon. Social media groups could play an important role in promoting breast-feeding in normal conditions and post crisis. The aim of this study is to identify breast-feeding challenges, facilitators and assets and to describe how community assets via social media could build community resilience to pandemic’s and disaster’s effects.
Design:
A two-phase qualitative content analysis was performed on posts and comments collected from a Facebook breast-feeding support group. Data were categorised into themes, categories and subcategories.
Setting:
Posts and comments retrieved from a Facebook breast-feeding support group in Lebanon during the month of August 2020.
Participants:
Group members: mothers who breastfed, breast-feeding mothers and group admins that are lactation consultants.
Results:
In phase one, breast-feeding ‘Challenges’ identified were lack of support from peers and family, lack of supportive policies, lack of knowledge and maternal stress related to political instability, COVID-19 and economic crisis. ‘Assets and facilitators’ included community support and donations. In phase two, analysis revealed how assets were being used on social media platform to build community resilience post crisis, through access to social support in challenging times, community engagement, material resources and transformative potential.
Conclusion:
Challenges faced during breast-feeding were diminished due to the support and assets received on a Facebook breast-feeding support group, and social media has been shown to be an important community asset implicated in empowering women to breastfeed and to build community resilience in moments of crisis.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a spotlight on how health outcomes are unequally distributed among different population groups, with disadvantaged communities and individuals being disproportionality affected in terms of infection, morbidity and mortality, as well as vaccine access. Recently, there has been considerable debate about how social disadvantage and inequality intersect with developmental processes to result in a heightened susceptibility to environmental stressors, economic shocks and large-scale health emergencies. We argue that DOHaD Society members can make important contributions to addressing issues of inequality and improving community resilience in response to COVID-19. In order to do so, it is beneficial to engage with and adopt a social justice framework. We detail how DOHaD can align its research and policy recommendations with a social justice perspective to ensure that we contribute to improving the health of present and future generations in an equitable and socially just way.
Chapter 11 of Community Disaster Recovery: Moving from Vulnerability to Resilience concludes the book be presenting key lessons from the study and provides recommendations to practitioners and disaster scholars who are working towards greater community-resilience and learning so that communities can prepare for and withstand extreme events in the future.
Disasters at the local level can serve as focusing events that increase agenda attention related to disaster response, recovery, and preparedness issues. Increased agenda attention can lead to policy changes and also to learning. The degree and type of learning that occurs after a disaster within a government organization can matter to policy outcomes related to individual, household, and community-level risks and resilience. Local governments oversee disaster planning and recovery and are the first line of disaster response. They also bear the burden of performing long-term disaster recovery and planning for future events. And yet, scholars do not have a clearly articulated framework for understanding if, how, and with what effect local governments learn after a disaster strikes their community. Drawing from analyses conducted over a five-year period of multiple disaster-affected communities in Colorado, USA, a framework of learning after disaster within local governments is presented.
Understanding people’s perception of community resilience to disaster is important. This study explores the correlations of household livelihood assets, the adopted household disaster preparedness activities, and individuals’ assessment of community resilience.
Methods:
The data was collected in 2018 by surveying a group of survivors affected by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China. The CART (Community Advancing Resilience Toolkit) was used to measure individuals’ perception of community resilience, while the livelihood assets included financial, physical, natural, human, and social capitals owned by the family, and the preparedness contained 13 activities. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models were used to test our hypotheses.
Results:
Social capital is consistently and positively associated with the overall individuals’ perceived community resilience, while the natural, human, and financial capitals’ effects are not significant. The awareness and participation preparedness activities are positively correlated with the perceived community resilience, but the material preparedness activities are not.
Conclusions:
Social capital and disaster preparedness activities are critical in building community resilience. Community resilience can be achieved by making the community more connected and by providing disaster preparedness interventions.
The World Stroke Organization “1 in 6” campaign aims to raise awareness that 1 in 6 persons will experience a stroke during their lifetime. With aging populations and improved survival rates, an increased number of survivors live with functional limitations and require supportive care. This has important implications for implementing an all-of-society approach to disaster risk reduction. In this study, we explore the assets that stroke survivors and caregivers consider useful in supporting their capacity to manage routine activities and independent living and to respond to a disaster.
Methods
Transcripts from interviews with stroke survivors and caregivers were analyzed by use of content analysis.
Results
Assets were categorized into 4 classes: social, physical, energy, and personal characteristics and are presented as a household map. Emergent themes suggested that understanding how to mobilize assets is complicated yet essential for building resilience. Household resilience requires people have self-efficacy and motivation to move from awareness to action. The findings informed development of a conceptual model of asset literacy and household resilience following stroke.
Conclusions
Interventions to enhance asset literacy can support an all-of-society approach to disaster risk reduction through awareness, empowerment, participation, innovation, and engagement. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018; 12: 312–320)
This study examined the role of community resilience and psychological resilience on depressive symptoms in areas on the Mississippi Gulf Coast that have experienced multiple disasters.
Methods
Survey administration took place in the spring of 2015 to a spatially stratified, random sample of households. This analysis included a total of 294 subjects who lived in 1 of the 3 counties of the Mississippi Gulf Coast at the time of both Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. The survey included the Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit (CART) scale, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC 10), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D).
Results
There was a significant inverse relationship between psychological resilience and depressive symptoms and a significant positive relationship between community resilience and psychological resilience. The results also revealed that community resilience was indirectly related to depressive symptoms through the mediating variable of psychological resilience.
Conclusions
These findings highlight the importance of psychological resilience in long-term disaster recovery and imply that long-term recovery efforts should address factors associated with both psychological and community resilience to improve mental health outcomes. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:241–248)
With the increase in natural and manmade disasters, preparedness remains a vital area of concern. Despite attempts by government and non-government agencies to stress the importance of preparedness, national levels of preparedness remain unacceptably low. A goal of commands and installations is to ensure that US Navy beneficiaries are well prepared for disasters. This especially is critical in active service members to meet mission readiness requirements in crisis settings.
Objective
To evaluate active duty Navy personnel, dependents, veterans, and retirees regarding disaster preparedness status.
Methods
The authors conducted an anonymous 29-question survey for US Navy active duty, dependents, veterans, and retirees of the Greater San Diego Region (California, USA) evaluating actual basic disaster readiness as determined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) standards of 3-day minimum supply of emergency stores and equipment. Descriptive statistics and regression analysis were used to analyze data.
Results
One thousand one hundred and fifty surveys were returned and analyzed. Nine hundred and eight-three were sufficiently complete for logistic regression analysis with 394 responding “Yes” to having a 72-hour disaster kit (40.1%) while 589 had “No” as a response (59.9%).
Conclusion
The surveyed population is no more prepared than the general public, though surveyed beneficiaries overall are at an upper range of preparedness. Lower income and levels of education were associated with lack of preparedness, whereas training in disaster preparedness or having been affected by disasters increased the likelihood of being adequately prepared. Unlike results seen in the general public, those with chronic health care needs in the surveyed population were more, rather than less, likely to be prepared and those with minor children were less likely, rather than more likely, to be prepared. Duty status was assessed and only veterans were emphatically more probable than most to be prepared.
AnnisH, JacobyI, DeMersG. Disaster Preparedness among Active Duty Personnel, Retirees, Veterans, and Dependents. Prehosp Disaster Med.2016;31(2):132–140.