ABSTRACT
Emergencies and Disasters can occur at any time, some with warning, some without; both will affect communities for a long time. Around the world these can arise from ‘natural’
events which may be due to extremes of weather or epidemics of disease or resulting more directly from human activity such as conflicts. Now as climate change begins to bite we can
expect more incidences of severe weather from drought to flooding, high winds to snow, all of which may require an emergency response at some stage. There are now a number of climate change predictions both at a regional and local level that will give you a range of potential outcomes over the next 40+ years. These predictions can give us a clue as to what to expect from extreme weather events in the years to come. Integrated Emergency Management (IEM), the
concept on which civil protection in the UK is based. IEM is seen as a holistic approach to preventing and managing emergencies that entails six key steps: anticipation; assessment; prevention; preparation; response and recovery. The first four of these steps comprise Emergency Preparedness while Emergency Response and Recovery covers the last two steps. In most emergencies EHPs will be expected to play
a key role both as a responder to the emergency
and as a lead in the recovery phase. The public health issues likely to be faced by an EHP will be both significant and diverse. They will place demands upon the EHP that will require a different approach to the use of their skills and knowledge.
