The role of the social worker community Social workers can immediately offer a variety of mental health services with intervention skills for psychological triage to aftermath disaster response in addressing family care, building resilient community capacity, and mental health media communication. Nearly half of disaster mental health services in the United States were delivered by social workers affiliated with the American Red Cross and Federal Crisis Counseling Assistance and Training programs (Bauwens & Naturale, 2017).
The Institute for Disaster Mental Health (n.d.) lists organizations and agencies that disaster mental health providers may encounter in their professional work and identifies resources and treatments relating to disaster mental health. The ongoing impacts of disasters will continue to occur, and it is little wonder that working in disaster zones has become one of the most rapidly developing fields of social work practice (Alston, et al., 2019).
THE CDC HEALTH ALERT NETWORK
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) established a Health Alert Network (HAN) whose purpose is to share knowledge about public health-related incidents that have been cleared for release to public health practitioners from the federal to the local level, including tribal and territorial practitioners and labs (CDC, 2018c). The HAN works with these officials and practitioners to create protocols to distribute this knowledge as rapidly as possible. Any healthcare practitioner who is interested in receiving alerts from CDC HAN can sign up for an email and RSS feeds. The CDC HAN reaches state public health officials who cover more than 90% of the US population. The CDC estimates that approximately 1 million healthcare personnel and others receive these alerts. Some examples of HAN alerts from the first 7 months of 2018 include a report about Fentanyl deaths, an outbreak of life-threatening coagulopathy related to synthetic cannabinoids, and an outbreak of Hepatitis A virus in the homeless and drug users (CDC, 2020b). The CDC HAN alerts are identified using one of four different color codes. The highest level is color coded in red and called a Health Alert . This alert identifies crucial and time-sensitive information related to a specific disaster or other high-level incident. It is considered as needing emergent action by local and state public health officials, healthcare personnel and responders, laboratory personnel, and the public. An orange alert, called a Health Advisory , is designed to share specific
information related to a disaster or other similar incident. It usually does not require immediate action, but it may offer recommendations about action that could or should be taken at some point. This level alert is released to local and state public health officials, healthcare personnel and responders, and laboratory personnel, but not to the general public. A blue-level alert, called a Health Update , releases information about a disaster, possible disaster, or other incident that does not require immediate attention and is likely not to in the future. A green alert is called an Info Service message . It is released to the general public, offers public health information, and will generally not require any immediate action (CDC, 2018c). Self-Assessment Quiz Question #3 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Health Alert Network is designed to provide: a. Kn owledge related to state-specific public health incidents. b. Clear information about a public health incident with appropriate agencies. c. Tribal level alerts meant to inform the public and healthcare professionals in the appropriate states about health-related incidents. d. Information about how many beds are available in the United States in the event of a terrorist attack.
BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL DISASTERS
Bioterrorism has a long history and dates to the 1300s BC when the Hittites sent infected rams to their enemies in the hopes of weakening them. Throughout history, other civilizations have used bioterrorism to fight their enemies, including the Scythian archers who fired arrows dipped in decomposing adders and human blood, and Hannibal of Cartagena, who had his soldiers throw pots full of venomous snakes aboard ships (Baras & Greub, 2014). The broad definition of bioterrorism is the deliberate and destructive use of biological agents, such as viruses, fungi, bacteria, or toxins derived from living organisms. The goal is to cause harm to humans, animals, and plants with the intent of achieving political or social upheaval or destruction. This destruction can be maximized if the agent’s virulence is increased by mutation or the inability of modern medicine to treat. These agents can be spread by food, air, water, insects, Biological terrorism Biological contaminants can be from terrorist attacks, accidental spills, or targeted hate crimes. The agents released into the air are from viruses, bacteria, fungi, or toxins produced from living organisms. If the agents are released from a terrorist attack or hate crime, the intent is to cause serious bodily harm to people, animals, or plants. The virulence can be increased by agents that are designed to mutate (Krishan et al., 2017). The intent of a terrorist attack may be to influence governments, make a public statement, or intimidate communities. The agents used in a biological attack are easily put into an aerosol for wide distribution and can be inexpensive (Kabir et al., 2016). These agents can cause widespread death or illness. Agents used in biological attacks are classified as Category A, B, or C. The Category A agents are anthrax ( Bacillus anthracis ),
animals, humans, and such items as mail and dirty bombs (Krishan et al., 2017). The first widespread use of chemical terrorism was by the Germans in World War I. In World War II, chemicals were not as widely used because of honored conventions against their deployment (Nwanegbo, 2013). Chemical terrorism, as well as chemical disasters, are the result of toxic substances being released that cause mass casualties or injuries. These substances can be released by terrorists or by an accidental spill. There has been a sudden increase in the use of these chemicals as evidenced by the use of Sarin in Syria in 2017 and 2018, and Novichok in Great Britain in 2018 (Therrien & Roxby, 2018). The key to managing biological or chemical disasters is early recognition of victims’ symptoms to allow for treatment and containment of the spread. botulism ( Clostridium botulinum toxin ), plague ( Yersinia pestis ), smallpox ( variola major ), tularemia ( Francisella tularensis ), and viral hemorrhagic fevers, including filoviruses (e.g., Ebola and Marburg) and arenaviruses (e.g., Lassa and Machupo; CDC, 2018a). Category A agents are easily disseminated, transmitted from person to person, have the potential for mass casualties, and require a sophisticated public health management system. Category B agents are brucellosis (brucella species), epsilon toxin of Clostridium perfringens; food safety threats (Salmonella species, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Shigella), Glanders ( Burkholderia mallei ), Melioidosis ( Burkholderia pseudomallei ), Psittacosis ( Chlamydia psittaci ), Q fever ( Coxiella burnetii ), ricin toxin from Ricinus communis (castor beans), Staphylococcal enterotoxin B, Typhus fever (Rickettsia prowazekii), viral
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