Role of the Counselor in Crisis Response, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

Role of the Counselor in Emergency Management Teams
Learner First Name MI. Last Name
Capella University
Instructor Name
Abstract
This paper will provide information concerning an actual crisis as told by an interviewee. This will provide insight into the emergency plan that is currently in use on the ground allowing for a comparison with the Mental Health All-Hazards Planning Guidance. From the comparison, discrepancies found in the emergency plan will be easily identified. By doing so, recommendations supported by additional professional literature will be provided. Also, a summary of the responsibilities of the counselor, including the professional role, functions, and relationships as a member of an interdisciplinary emergency management response team will be discussed. The paper will then go forward to provide information on the specific skills and knowledge that is needed by a counselor to allow them function effectively as a member of an interdisciplinary emergency management response team. This will be followed by an in-depth look at the type of training a counselor needs to acquire the skills and knowledge relevant to emergency responding.
Role of the Counselor in Emergency Management Teams
Emergency planning is very essential in dealing with emergency situations such as car accidents, tsunamis, accidents and many more. The emergency plan should follow a comprehensive guideline such as the Mental Health All-Hazards Planning Guidance, which touches on every aspect. Emergency plans not only allow for a timely rescue but also ensure each one of the emergency team knows their roles and responsibilities thus limiting confusion. One of those key team members is a counselor who has many responsibilities and whose efficiency totally depends on a multidisciplinary corporation.
Interview with an Emergency Professional
According to Paul, a member of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), there are a lot of things involved when it comes to an earthquake emergency. He talks of a successful response depending on a strong relationship between key partners, each responsible for elements of the emergency plan. This takes into consideration the fact that unlike other natural hazards, earthquakes can cause catastrophic losses.
When it comes to the emergency plan of an earthquake emergency, Paul talks of earthquake notifications as being the first step. This responsibility falls under geoscience team who then directly notifies the State Duty Officer (SDO) once they detect an earthquake of up to 4.3mg. The SDO goes forward to notify the emergency services Regional Duty Officers (RDOs) and the relevant state agency duty officers.
Once notified the response phase is initiated. In this phase, the incident controller plays a key role as he is charged with some responsibilities including establish and maintaining a management structure and also ensure all key agencies, stakeholders and organizations have the opportunity for representation and input to the incident management processes. The incident controller also carries out an immediate reconnaissance to establish the extent of the damage. The state response controller will then make arrangements to ensure that initial impact assessment data is collected and incorporated into the operational response.
Evacuation of people in the seismic area then follows with the incident controller charged with the responsibility of making the necessary recommendations. The medical response team then takes over the responsibility of treating the injured, assessing public health risk and providing environmental health advice. The mental health professionals who are also part of the medical team are responsible for providing and coordinating immediate psychological support to those both directly and indirectly affected. What follows next is a series of activities including damage control, restricting access, emergency relief, debris removal and aircraft resourcing. Lastly, the recovery phase commences with the Incident Management team ensuring a seamless transition between response to recovery.
Comparison with the Mental Health All-Hazards Planning Guidance
From the interview carried out it was clear that there most things were taken into consideration when comparing it to the Mental Health All-Hazards Planning Guidance. However, some discrepancies were observed for example when it came to health and medical issues the element of documentation of coordination with state emergency management health did not come out clearly. Through documentation, data obtained will allow for proper management and care once the casualties are transported to the hospital. Documentation is key in ensuring proper resource management ADDIN CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "abstract" : "Best practice guidance in developing and deploying Medical Emergency Incident Response Teams.", "author" : [ { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Department of Health", "given" : "", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" } ], "container-title" : "NHS Emergency Planning", "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2010" ] ] }, "number-of-pages" : "13", "title" : "NHS Emergency Planning Guidance NHS Emergency Planning Guidance", "type" : "report" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=60668a1b-c176-406a-9523-428b0e40e667", "/documents/?uuid=36c31525-2156-47d7-b9da-252ab0257a46" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "formattedCitation" : "(Department of Health, 2010)", "plainTextFormattedCitation" : "(Department of Health, 2010)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Department of Health, 2010)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" }(Department of Health, 2010).
The interview did not touch on the establishment of policies and procedures for offices and facilities which falls under warning of the Mental Health All-Hazards Planning Guidance. This involves things like holding the staff in place, sending staff home, and recall of essential staff. Such policies and procedures allow for seamlessness of operations.
Most of what was discussed during the interview seemed to be in tandem with what is stipulated in the Mental Health All-Hazards Planning Guidance. The concept of operations provides for the division of responsibility. People like the incident controller, state res...