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When a natural or human-caused disaster strikes, like a tsunami or a civil
war, relief organizations mobilize to help people in need. Amidst the chaos,
relief workers try to deliver the best care they can. But can they do
better?
Mary Turco and James Strickler contributed to a new report that identifies ways
to improve humanitarian health response during disasters. (Photo by Joseph
Mehling '69)
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A new report from Dartmouth Medical
School (DMS) and the Harvard
Humanitarian Initiative discusses the challenge of responding promptly,
efficiently, and humanely when disasters occur. The report summarizes work
conducted at the first Humanitarian Health Conference at Dartmouth in
September, and it's available online
(download the PDF, 143K)
"Events like Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami in Indonesia, and the
conflict in the Sudan have raised the level of awareness about humanitarian aid
workers," says James Strickler, dean emeritus of DMS and chairman emeritus
of the Board of Directors of the International
Rescue Committee. "The time was right to accelerate our thinking, to
examine what we're doing now, and to talk about how it might be done
better."
The September conference welcomed about 100 academics, aid workers, and
representatives from nongovernmental organizations and nonprofit agencies.
Strickler, who was instrumental in organizing the event, was pleased that a
productive conversation ensued.
The report outlines the four main issues discussed at the conference:
increasing the numbers and elevating the professional recognition of people who
work in humanitarian aid, providing better oversight of technical and strategic
support in the field, developing guidelines to monitor and evaluate
requirements for health programs, and coordinating response activities and
encouraging collaboration among agencies.
"The report makes recommendations and lists a few examples of best
practices, and we don't intend to lose that momentum. This is the first of many
discussions," says Mary Turco, another key conference organizer and
director of the Center for Continuing Education in the Health Sciences and of
Continuing Medical Education at DMS. "The follow-up conference, this time
in Cambridge, Mass., is already being planned."
Both Turco and Strickler admit that they themselves are not professional
humanitarian health workers, but both are deeply involved in organizations
working in this field. They explain that better responses to complex
emergencies have been evolving over the past several years. These complex
situations now involve many simultaneous issues, some or all of which might be
occurring at any given point during a disaster, such as finding reliable
shelter and clean water, encountering people suffering from severe injuries,
securing access to adequate food or medical supplies, increasing threat of
personal harm in dangerous territory, and the resettling of refugees either in
their home countries or elsewhere.
"Basically, we're looking for ways to better manage chaos," says
Strickler. "We know we can do a better job. This report is the very first
step. And we're delighted that this report was discussed at the World Health Organization meeting last
October. It has already started to inform changes in how complex emergencies
are handled."
The conference was sponsored by DMS and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative,
and it was supported financially by the Dickey Center for International
Understanding, the DMS Dean's
Office, the Department of Community
and Family Medicine, the Center
for Evaluative Clinical Sciences, and the New England Center for Emergency
Preparedness, all at Dartmouth. Other supporters include
AmeriCares, the International Rescue
Committee, Save the Children,
the Global Health Council, the American Medical
Association Foundation, Becton-Dickinson and
Company, Merck, Schering-Plough,
Pfizer, and Baxter.
By SUSAN KNAPP
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