Editorial

Citation

Brunsden, V. and Greenhalgh, K. (2013), "Editorial", International Journal of Emergency Services, Vol. 2 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijes.2013.58002aaa.001

Editorial

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Emergency Services, Volume 2, Issue 1.

Working within the emergency services is clearly demanding. Personnel are subject to the same pressures as other occupations but, in addition, routinely have experiences specific to their working environment related to emergencies and disasters. Managers must develop strategies for coping with these experiences in addition to those “normal” issues faced by any private or public sector organisation. Like all publically funded organisations the emergency services are subject to transparency and accountability but, in addition to these requirements and due to the nature of their work, they are often under the “gaze of the public” through various news media. In this issue there is a focus on some of these multi-faceted demands experienced by emergency services personnel in the course of their duties.

The first article by Mary Guy, Meredith Newman and Emil Ganapati explores situations of emotional intensity within which emergency services personnel are required to perform their duties. Their case study uses the Aurora incident, the multiple shooting of individuals in the vicinity of the premier of the Batman movie: “the Dark Knight Rises”. The authors discuss the need to manage one's own emotional demands whilst simultaneously providing operational management to a highly charged critical incident which was subject to international media attention. In addition to their theoretical explorations of emotional labour the authors offer a range of pragmatic approaches in which to utilise human resources practices to support and prepare personnel for such emotionally intense encounters. The authors also discuss a number of themes that are considered in other papers included within this issue. They make important points about the need for training emergency services personnel, not only to prepare them in terms of practical operational activities but also to prepare them for the emotional situations in which they may be placed and, even more importantly, for how they should then handle their own resultant emotions.

Many emergency services have, in recent years, re-prioritised their activities with an increasing focus on prevention alongside response. This re-prioritisation has led to a redefinition of the role of responders but, as yet, there is little evidence to suggest that education and training practices have moved at a similar pace to the operational changes. The second paper in this issue, by Lita Grace, centres on defining training and contrasting this with definitions of education using physical fitness training as the focus for its discussion. Lita argues that there is a requirement for training and education to co-occur in order to better protect emergency services personnel from commonly experienced health problems. Some readers may believe that this argument could equally be made for other areas of preparation for responders, with training practices more broadly benefitting from being supplemented and underpinned by wider educational approaches.

The next two papers in this issue focus on communication but within very different contexts. As Guy, Newman and Ganapati have alluded to in the issue's first paper, emergency services personnel frequently need to communicate with the public. Where strategies and policies are being developed to “best serve” the community, the emergency services personnel will work in collaboration with representatives of that community. At other times, particularly during operational situations, the communications will necessarily be more one way and directive. The third paper, by Holly Carter and Richard Amlot, deals with the directive communication required within an emergency context. It explores communication practices during mass casualty decontamination events; events that are operationally complex, not only because of their inherent nature and the numbers of the public likely to be affected, but also due to the potential anxiety levels that will be experienced by the affected population. The authors have conducted a comprehensive document review, focussing on communications guidance and published reports of emergency preparedness exercises involving decontamination. Their findings suggest that current guidance could be improved and that there is a need for stronger emphasis on communication with the public during emergency preparedness exercises involving decontamination. It could be argued that the effectiveness of any response involving large numbers of the public will be highly dependent on effective responder-public communications and therefore the issues raised within this article may have wider implications than the management of decontamination events.

The final article within the research section of this issue, by Lauren Monds, Helen Paterson and Keenan Whittle, examines communication within the services themselves, in relation to post-incident debriefing. The paper considers how debriefings affect both the psychological responses of those involved, as well as the memory integrity of the event. The differences between operational debriefing and psychological debriefing are delineated as well as considering how these processes might share underpinning mechanisms. Memory integrity is of significant import for operational debriefings given that witness reports may be considered in, inter alia, inquests and prosecutions. It is also important for psychological debriefings given that these are intended to assist in the prevention of posttraumatic stress, the symptoms of which are inextricably linked to both the reliving of memories and the avoidance of reminders. The literature on the utility of psychological debriefings is somewhat conflicted and this paper may add some clarity to these debates.

In the Practice Interface of this issue Anne Eyre and Kate Brady focus on the recovery phase following disasters, with a particular emphasis on psychosocial and community dimensions. Their considerations will be of particular interest to those working within emergency management, especially those working in recovery related areas. Their article provides further support for community-based approaches to empower and engage those directly affected by disasters in determining the pattern of their own recovery. Both authors conducted independent research whilst in receipt of Travelling Fellowships from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. Variations of this scheme are open to applications from any citizen of the UK, Australia or New Zealand, with funding being made available to facilitate overseas travel to facilitate the sharing of knowledge. Although research is a central activity within this, the Fellowships are not intended only for academics. Research oriented practitioners within the emergency services of those three countries are also encouraged to investigate this scheme. The Fellowships sit at the nexus of research and practice as does the Practitioner Interface section of the IJES. We would therefore welcome future submissions which emanate from this excellent initiative.

Viv Brunsden and Kirsten Greenhalgh