Relief Resources Research Articles

우리나라의 재해구호 실태와 발전방안에 관한 연구

우리나라의 재해구호 행정은 "재해구호법"에 의거 자연재해로 인한 이재민 구호 위주로 되어있다. 따라서 저출산 고령화, 다문화, 기후변화 등 사회 경제 환경적 변화와 함께 신종 복합재난의 빈발할 가능성이 상존해 있으므로 모든 재해에 대처할 통합 재해구호의 필요성이 증대되고 있다. 이와 함께 고령자, 외국인수의 증가로 인해 재해약자를 배려할 법 제도적인 정비는 시급히 해결되어야 할 과제이다. 그리고 이재민에게 신속하고 안정되게 지원하여야 할 재난지원금과 구호기금 등 재해구호재원의 문제점도 개선되어야 한다. 아울러 재해구호세트 중심의 경직된 재해구호 물자 관리, 임시주거시설의 문제점 역시 해결되어야 할 과제이다. 마지막으로 구호교육 훈련의 부족, 구호전문가 양성 소홀과 연구개발(R&D)의 저조, 자원봉사 활동의 문제와 관련된 재해구호 운영상의 한계도 문제점으로 지적된다. 따라서 본 논문은 구호서비스 증진을 위한 법과 제도, 구호재원과 구호물자, 그리고 구호운영 실태 등을 조사 분석하고 문제점을 도출하여 구호업무 발전방안을 제시하였다. Major disaster relief in Korea is administered on the basis of the Disaster Relief Act which mainly aims for the relief of victims affected by natural disasters. There is, however, a growing need for the comprehensive relief that can cope with all kinds of disasters because the possibility of new and complex disasters always happens amid social, economic, and environmental changes, including low fertility, population aging, multiculturalism, and climate change. At the same time, due to the increasing numbers of elderly people and foreign workers, the establishment of laws and systems protecting the disaster minority has become an urgent task. Futhermore, several problems which relate to disaster relief funds and donations should be resolved. They must be delivered to the disaster victims promptly. And the poor management of the disaster relief supply which is focused on disaster relief kits only and the problem of the temporary housing facility should also be improved. Lastly, the short duration of disaster relief education and training, the neglect of cultivating disaster relief professionals and R&D, and the limitation of disaster relief management regarding to volunteering activities are pointed out. In this study, the development plan for relief activities were discussed by investigating and analyzing the problems involved in raws and legal system, relief resources and supplies, relief systems currently being operated.

High‐frequency TENS in post‐episiotomy pain relief in primiparous puerpere: A randomized, controlled trial

We evaluated the effectiveness of high-frequency transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) as a pain relief resource for primiparous puerpere who had experienced natural childbirth with an episiotomy. A controlled, randomized clinical study was conducted in a Brazilian maternity ward. Forty puerpere were randomly divided into two groups: TENS high frequency and a no treatment control group. Post-episiotomy pain was assessed in the resting and sitting positions and during ambulation. An 11-point numeric rating scale was performed in three separate evaluations (at the beginning of the study, after 60 min and after 120 min). The McGill pain questionnaire was employed at the beginning and 60 min later. TENS with 100 Hz frequency and 75 µs pulse for 60 min was employed without causing any pain. Four electrodes ware placed in parallel near the episiotomy site, in the area of the pudendal and genitofemoral nerves. An 11-point numeric rating scale and McGill pain questionnaire showed a significant statistical difference in pain reduction in the TENS group, while the control group showed no alteration in the level of discomfort. Hence, high-frequency TENS treatment significantly reduced pain intensity immediately after its use and 60 min later. TENS is a safe and viable non-pharmacological analgesic resource to be employed for pain relief post-episiotomy. The routine use of TENS post-episiotomy is recommended.

The Gentle War: Famine Relief, Politics, and Privatization in Ethiopia, 1983-1986*

Alexander Poster's article, “The Gentle War: Famine Relief, Politics, and Privatization in Ethiopia—1983–1986” examines the Reagan administration's efforts to resolve Cold War disputes through humanitarian assistance. With the Vietnam War fresh in minds of both Congress and the American public, Reagan officials dealt with hesitancy when they pressed for military and developmental grants for foreign nations. M. Peter McPherson, administrator for the Agency for International Development, discovered a solution to the Reagan administration's problem. McPherson noted that Americans still supported humanitarian objectives abroad and sought to incorporate humanitarian relief into President Reagan's foreign policy strategy. The Ethiopian famine of the mid-1980s resulted in the largest mobilization of relief resources in U.S. history. The American response was both a humanitarian effort and a targeted attempt to discredit socialist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. American policymakers drew up their policy with the intent to strengthen rebel areas, discourage collectivization of land, and take credit for most of the relief effort. Thus, disaster relief in Ethiopia served a dual purpose: to provide humanitarian aid and to further American security interests.

Malnutrition in Emergencies: The Framing of Nutrition Concerns in the Humanitarian Appeals Process, 1992 to 2009

This paper examines how nutrition has been used to raise humanitarian relief resources through the United Nations appeals process, from 1992 to early 2009. Recent calls for "nutrition safety nets" as a response to the world food price crisis reflect a growing recognition of nutrition as a key element in crisis management, not simply as a metric of how bad things have become. The evolution in thinking about the role of nutrition in emergency programming is reflected in changes in how nutrition has been conceptualized and presented in the consolidated appeals process. Based on a desk review, supported by key informant interviews, the paper highlights important changes that include an increasing distinction that separates nutrition from food, water, and health; the importance of synergies across sectors; increased emphasis on "essential packages" of inputs and services versus stand-alone activities; the importance of technical rigor in food and nutrition assessment and surveys; the need for technical competency and capacity in the design and management of nutrition interventions; and the importance of planning for long-term change even in delivering a short-term response. There has also been growing emphasis on specificity in objectives--a trend linked to demand for more accountability across the humanitarian system. Enhanced emergency preparedness will require further capacity building and improved systems for surveillance and data management. Without more systematic, targeted attention to pre-crisis malnutrition, the resources needed to tackle nutrition problems during emergencies will continue to grow.

Harnessing Heights by the Use of Up and Downhill Relief Resources to Strengthen Sustainability for the Ecological and Economic Needs of Poverty Pressed Nepali: An Altitude Geographic Approach for the Development

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ttp.v3i0.1775The Third Pole Vol.3&4, 2004 p.1-18

The Impact of FEMA on U.S. Corruption: Implications for Policy

This Policy Comment examines the effect that federal government disaster relief payments have on local corruption. Using econometric analysis Leeson and Sobel explain how federal disaster aid acts as a resource windfall and why states that have more natural disasters see higher levels of public corruption. They explain how public corruption has negative effects on communities' long-term prosperity and describe how policy makers can craft disaster response policies to minimize these negative unintended consequences. With the Hurricane Katrina debacle raising questions about public corruption's impact on disaster relief, corruption has once again become an important issue in American politics. This comment, however, analyzes not corruption's impact on disaster relief, but rather the impact that disaster relief has on corruption. Disaster relief floods money and resources into the affected area, which provides public officials the incentive and opportunity to gain wealth through corrupt practices. Our analysis shows that states that receive more disaster relief also have more instances of public corruption. Corruption not only hinders the effective management of disaster relief, but it also has long-term consequences for economic prosperity. More corruption is associated with lower growth and investment, and states that receive disaster relief often suffer from these effects. When determining the best course of action, policy makers must remember that increased corruption is an unintended consequence of disaster relief. Increased oversight is unlikely to solve the problem of corruption because of the circumstances surrounding natural disaster. The time sensitive nature of the disaster relief means that protocol will take a backseat when disasters actually strike. Policies that assume the federal government plays the primary role in disaster response are the most susceptible to corruption. Total elimination of public corruption generated by disaster relief will not be possible so long as FEMA relief exists. Any plan to reform disaster relief that intends to minimize corruption should recognize the role of local actors, presumably charities and business, and create space for them to react in time of crisis. Policy makers should recognize the consequences of disaster relief when dealing with urgent crises in order to make sure that they do not hinder the long-term prosperity of a community.

Natural disasters in developing countries: Mental health issues

Natural disasters are not only more common in developing countries but also have greater devastating impact. Ninety percent of natural disasters and 95% of disaster-related deaths occur in developing countries. [1] There are various reasons for this, viz., poor warning systems, inadequate emergency response during disaster, poor preparedness and mitigation measures for the disasters. Besides, disasters in developing countries usually affect a comparatively large number of people. Poor connectivity to affected areas and deÞ cit in resources for acute relief appear as important determinants of morbidity. Pre-disaster factors like lower economic status, poor housing quality and poor communication systems add to the misery.

Advances in Monitoring Have Not Translated into Improvements in Humanitarian Health Services

This paper is an attempt to review the advances and shortfalls in data collection and use of health data that have occurred during health emergencies in recent decades for the opening session of the Humanitarian and Health Conference at Dartmouth University in September of 2006. Examples of various kinds of successes and failures associated with health data collection are given to highlight advances with an effort to emphasize multi-agency efforts reviewed by outside scholars. Health data, particularly surveillance data, have allowed relief workers to set priorities for life-saving humanitarian programs. The main guidelines widely utilized such as those of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Médecins sans Frontières, and the Sphere Project have considerable similarity due to the consistency of data collected in various crises. Moreover, difficult to see problems and successes have been revealed by coherent surveillance efforts. Yet, these data collection efforts can not show significant improvements in the quality of humanitarian aid in recent years. Moreover, health data often do not appear to have meaningful influence on the prioritizing of relief resources globally or on those political issues that trigger emergencies. The field of humanitarian relief is relatively nascent. Methods for documenting basic health measures on the local level have been developed and general health priorities have been documented. Some technical improvements in monitoring still are needed but decision-making is most often limited by the lack of data rather than the problems with data. The ability of health data to influence spending global priorities, legal or political actions undertaken by international organizations, remains very limited.

Self Help Pain Relief on the World Wide Web: What Is a Health Care Provider to Do?

The Internet is growing at an astounding rate and with practically no controls. Patients turn to the Internet-especially the World Wide Web (WWW) component of it-for all sorts of information, advice, and referrals. Health care professionals may struggle to keep up with the information load, either because they do not know it exists or they do not know how to find it. This article focuses on patient oriented pain relief resources in an effort to boost providers to the same level of sophistication that their patients exhibit in cyberspace.

Evaluation of long-term community recovery from Hurricane Andrew: sources of assistance received by population sub-groups.

Two three-stage cluster surveys were conducted in South Dade County, Florida, 14 months apart, to assess recovery following Hurricane Andrew. Response rates were 75 per cent and 84 per cent. Sources of assistance used in recovery from Hurricane Andrew differed according to race, per capita income, ethnicity, and education. Reports of improved living situation post-hurricane were not associated with receiving relief assistance, but reports of a worse situation were associated with loss of income, being exploited, or job loss. The number of households reporting problems with crime and community violence doubled between the two surveys. Disaster relief efforts had less impact on subjective long-term recovery than did job or income loss or housing repair difficulties. Existing sources of assistance were used more often than specific post-hurricane relief resources. The demographic make-up of a community may determine which are the most effective means to inform them after a disaster and what sources of assistance may be useful.

Proposed scaling of the communal consequences of disaster

Rapid assessment of a community′s capacity to continue coping in the aftermath of disaster could be of great value. Gradations of community consequences can provide emergency planners with criteria to guide them to realistic needs assessment and are invaluable to researchers in classifying incidents by intensity. Conventional wisdom might lead us to view impact on community functioning in disasters as a continuum, ranging from minimal to total collapse. Such a perception lacks clear‐cut gradation, making administrative judgements difficult and contributing to the squandering of relief resources because of our inaccurate assessment of the community′s incapacity. The precise points where communities cross damage thresholds resulting in the collapse of infrastructure appear at first, to vary inexplicably. Careful consideration suggests three sets of factors which interface to affect these thresholds. Taken together, these will raise or lower community capacity to cope with adversity. The appropriate level of emergency relief could best be determined if we can strengthen our ability to assess rapidly the community′s remaining capacity to provide for its own population. Proposes that this could be accomplished by the scaling of three sets of factors: community background, event factors and impact factors. Although the need for scaling cannot be denied, the specifics of this suggestion will need to be tested to determine their applicability.

Complex, Humanitarian Emergencies: II. Medical Liaison and Training

In complex, humanitarian emergencies, professional liaison roles are just one of many that evolve from the coordination of United Nations agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross, international and national non-governmental relief organizations, and coalition military forces. Liaison is crucial to the humanitarian relief process. Decision makers benefit from liaisons' professional experience, their knowledge of the characteristics, missions, and capabilities of each major participant in the relief process, and in their ability to coordinate and clarify professional issues in meeting the goals of a mission. Medical liaison roles develop from the awareness that complex emergencies primarily are catastrophic public-health emergencies. Unfortunately, education and training of the medical liaison currently are ill-defined. However, limited experience suggests that skills should be broadly based in principles of disaster epidemiology, assessment and management, knowledge of contributing relief resources, agencies and the military, and international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.

Using agricultural data for timely warning to prevent the effects of drought on child nutrition in Botswana

Data from agricultural reporting systems in Botswana for the period 1978–83 are combined with data from the Ministry of Health's clinic‐based nutritional surveillance system in a retrospective analysis to investigate the usefulness of agricultural indicators for timely warning of unusually severe child malnutrition due to drought. In the arable farming areas in eastern Botswana, deficits in an index of ground water sufficiency for maize growth during the growing season (January‐April) were associated with the deviation from trend in children's malnutrition (measured by weight‐for‐age) during the peak season for malnutrition, later in the year, across regions and over time. In arid Western Botswana, as well as the East, qualitative reports on the condition of cattle were also shown to be useful predictors of child malnutrition. Decisions on the allocation of resources for relief could be made early in the year, based on agricultural data, even before confirmation from clinic data is available.

THE DISASTER VICTIM COMMUNITY: PART OF THE SOLUTION, NOT THE PROBLEM

One of the greatest disaster relief resources available to emergency management officials is the disaster victim community. Contrary to a popular image of social and psychological breakdown in the aftermath of a sudden catastrophic event, impacted communities do respond rationally and adaptively. Recommendations are advanced for utilizing community groups in pre‐disaster planning and in relief operations used during the emergency period.

The Child

The year 1932 saw better organization of relief resources and greatly increased expenditures-78 per cent in 1932 over 1931 for 124 cities. The plight of large numbers of homeless minors has become serious. Although the general trend of the infant mortality rate has continued downward, impairment of the health of many children through malnutrition is indicated. While total numbers show decline in juvenile delinquency, analysis of offenses suggests that conduct problem have become more serious. Child labor on the whole has shown a decrease for 1931; figures for 1932 are not yet available. Few legislative measures were passed during 1932 relating to other subject of social welfare than relief of unemployment and curtailment of expenditures.

Community Organization

During 1931 the "community" in America was very weak. Due to the continued economic crisis, relief resources in many cases have been exhausted and standards of living and relief standards lowered. Community relief has come largely from public or gevernmental sources. An "unemployment" psychology prevails, evident in lack of unity of purpose, spontaneous leadership, or effective community organization. Interest has centered around the concept regionalism. Consolidation in rural fields and "situation" approach in urban activities have been emphasized.