This report offers information and advice to assist all levels of government in its work to establish evidence-based policies, programs, and practices across the life cycle of disasters. This report provides examples of effective community efforts with respect to people with disabilities, and evaluates many emergency preparedness, disaster relief,…

Michael G. Wessells, recipient of the International Humanitarian Award, is cited for his pioneering and sustained contributions to the protection of children affected by armed conflict and to the development of international guidelines for the provision of community-based, culturally responsive psychosocial support in emergencies. Wessells has…

Sudden cardiac death among athletes continues to take the lives of college students across the nation. Leadership at all levels of higher education has great concern over this phenomenon. However, the processes and procedures related to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) remain poorly understood. Corrado (1998) suggests that sudden cardiac death of…

A key component of comprehensive school and school district emergency management plans is an exercise program that includes the five types of exercises: (1) orientation seminars; (2) drills; (3) tabletop exercises; and (4) functional exercises. Functional exercises are excellent tools for testing the extent to which an existing emergency…

A central issue in the use of rapid evaluation and assessment methods (REAM) is achieving a balance between speed and trustworthiness. In this article, the authors review the key differences and common features of this family of methods and present a case example that illustrates how evaluators can use rapid evaluation techniques in their own…

Community colleges, while safe, are not immune to violence. In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, community colleges are committed to making campuses safer. From training first responders to understanding and identifying potential threats, the author describes what schools are doing to eradicate their so-called [in] securities and improve…

This article reports on the findings of the state panel on the Virginia Tech massacre. A state panel that investigated last spring's massacre at Virginia Tech has issued a harshly worded report that says the university erred in the way it handled a mentally disabled student who became a killer and in how it dealt with the immediate aftermath of…

Hamline University, a medium sized college in St. Paul Minnesota, dedicated resources and time to New Orleans, Louisiana in its efforts to rebuild and reclaim the city. Days after Hurricane Katrina hit, Hamline sent students, faculty and staff to help with recovery efforts. The Education Club adopted Martin Luther King Science and Technology…

As a result of high profile shootings and critical incidents in schools on a national level, combined with the lack of a cohesive, standardized approach to safety and security in Idaho Schools, Superintendent Tom Luna requested an appropriation to address this issue and the Legislature allocated 5150.000 in FY 2008 for the Safe and Secure…

"Child Care Health Connections" is a bimonthly newsletter published by the California Childcare Health Program (CCHP), a community-based program of the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing, Department of Family Health Care Nursing. The goals of the newsletter are to promote and support a healthy and safe environment…

The decision that led to the 1992 opening of the University of Connecticut's new public safety complex was excellent timing. Three years after the complex opened, complete with a state-of-the-art Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), an emergency operations/training center and an indoor firing range, the quiet, nearly 4,000-acre UConn campus…

New Brunswick is a small Maritime province in Canada bordering on Maine. With just 700,000 people, the population is clustered in small cities and towns. Nevertheless, tragedies happen here as they do elsewhere and there is a need to be prepared. The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) had developed PREPaRE, a curriculum founded…

Objective: It is essential for health care professionals to be prepared for a bioterrorist attack or other public health emergency. We sought to determine how well biodefense and emerging infectious disease research information was being disseminated to rural health care providers, first responders, and public health officials. Methods:…

Now more than ever, campus safety is of paramount importance. A reliable emergency mass notification system is one way to ensure the safety of constituents, and Brandeis University (MA) recently invested in a system that does the job. In this article, the author interviews John Turner, the school's director of networks and systems. Turner…

"Helpful Hints" offers a quick overview of school emergency preparedness topics that are frequently the subject of inquiries. The Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools (OSDFS) encourages schools to consider emergency management in the context of its four phases: mitigation and prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. The preparedness phase…