Hazard Vulnerability Analysis & Metrics Score Card
Introducing the Pediatric After-Action Report (PAAR)
The PAAR is designed to ensure that pediatric considerations are seamlessly integrated into disaster management strategies, from planning to recovery, and serves as a structured tool that guides emergency managers, healthcare professionals, and community organizations in evaluating responses to disasters, focusing on children's needs. We aim to create a safer and more resilient family environment by addressing children's unique challenges during emergencies.
Why Including Pediatrics Matters
In many after-action reports, considerations for children are either minimal or absent. This oversight can lead to inadequate responses to their unique needs during disasters, such as access to medical care, shelter, and family reunification. The PAAR aims to change this narrative by advocating for comprehensive planning and response strategies that leave no child behind.
Key Features of the PAAR
Comprehensive Framework: Our template provides a detailed structure that encourages thorough documentation of events, including essential elements of information specific to pediatric care and safety.
Focused Questions: Each section of the PAAR includes targeted questions designed to prompt detailed discussions about children's needs, ensuring that every aspect is considered and addressed during recovery.
Opportunities for Improvement: The template identifies gaps and proposes actionable steps to enhance future disaster responses. This proactive approach creates a feedback loop that strengthens community preparedness.
Collaboration and Expertise: Developed with input from various stakeholders, including healthcare professionals, emergency managers, and child safety advocates, the PAAR reflects a collaborative effort to prioritize pediatric concerns.
Is Your Community Pediatric Disaster or Hazard Ready?
A well-prepared emergency management system is essential for regions and communities to prepare and respond to disasters and other emergencies. Using tools such as the Pediatric Hazard Vulnerability Analysis and the Regional Metrics Score Card can help. Click on the presentation link from Dr. Deanna Dahl Grove and Dr. Nathan Timm as they guide you through the ways to use these tools to help you prepare for these hazard or disaster events.
Pediatric Hazard Vulnerability Analysis
The Hazard Vulnerability Analysis (HVA) focuses on identifying regions' tools for preparing for and mitigating disasters, with particular consideration of how they uniquely influence pediatric patients. Emergency managers and hospital representatives complete pediatric HVAs, which seek to identify various hazards (natural, human-derived, etc.), their probability of occurrence, their potential impact on children, and how prepared the given community is to handle such an event.
The Pediatric HVA assessment tool is a method of determining hazards' impacts on a region and how prepared regions are for each hazard's pediatric consequences.
Regional Metrics Score Card
Children and families are more easily overwhelmed and affected in disasters than the general population. There are many factors to consider on a regional basis that are identified in this scorecard in various domains that can impact children and their families.The purpose of the scorecard is to provide opportunities to understand the infrastructure and support mechanisms that exist for children within the region. The Metrics Score Card focuses on expertise available in the area, mental and behavioral health considerations, and community resilience.
Children and Disaster Hazard Infographic and Resources
These infographics provide the community, hospital leadership, public health officials, policymakers, and first responders with awareness, preparedness, response, and mitigation intelligence unique to children associated with covering twenty-four hazards in the Eastern Great Lakes Region.