How do you assess or develop preparedness?
Preparedness consists of all those activities that enable communities, industries or businesses to respond to and recover from emergencies. Given that you have done everything in your power to prevent/mitigate hazards, you now need to ensure that you are prepared for any emergencies that may still occur. Preparedness activities include:
- emergency management planning itself;
- the development of response and recovery procedures;
- the assessment of training requirements and the conduct of any required training;
- the conduct of exercises to test plans, procedures and personnel;
- the establishment and maintenance of emergency management systems within which plans and procedures can operate.
Most communities have at least some of the above activities under way, but it is safe to say that very few communities have a 'perfect' system.
Thinking about some of the methods we have used so far in this subject, how do you think you could go about assessing the appropriateness of an emergency preparedness system? Jot your thoughts down before progressing further.
One way of assessing emergency preparedness is by comparing what already exists against a set of criteria for an appropriate system. This set of criteria could form a checklist. But one thing always to remember with checklists is that they are 'closed systems', which means that they are finite and limited only to those criteria that have been found useful in some locations. Not all of the criteria will apply to your community, industry or activity, and there may be gaps in the checklist as far as your community is concerned. The standard checklists should only be considered as a minimum set of desirable criteria, and that they also can be used to further develop emergency preparedness.
The following sections provide some checklists of criteria in the form of questions. Think about your answers to the questions as you read them—this will assist you greatly in focusing discussion in your planning group. If your answer to any of the questions is 'I don't know' or 'I'm not sure', you should try to find out—the first stop for questions is your planning committee. If your answer is 'yes', then simply note the relevant details. If the answer is 'no', then you should note this and write down what you believe is required.
The checklists are loosely subdivided into general emergency preparedness, emergency response planning and emergency recovery planning. The readings interspersed with these checklists provide further information on each aspect.