ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors examine the structures through which social workers might work in a post-disaster situation – the multi-disciplinary, multi-agency, multidimensional teams, governance structures and chains of command that guide the response, and the factors that therefore shape practice options in the immediacy of a catastrophic disaster. Social workers are located across the international non-governmental organisations, non-Government Organisations (NGO), government and not-for-profit sectors and thus can arrive via different pathways and with different organisational expectations. As emergency responders and organisational representatives arrive, the scale of disasters and lack of experience in dealing with a real-time emergency can sometimes lead to confusion and delays in implementing plans. In a detailed systematic review of disaster responsiveness, Louise Harms and Boddy note that disasters necessarily bring layers of government and NGOs together quickly, but that the chain of command is often blurry, and it is difficult to know who is doing what and when.
