After the recent earthquake disaster in the Sichuan province, the World Health Organization (Western Pacific Region) Collaborating Centre for Community Health Service (WHOCC) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU)’s School of Nursing (SN) has set up a Post-Disaster Care Task Force to respond to the victims’ imminent needs, and assist mainland and local healthcare practitioners to provide continued and effective services. The Task Force and SN had jointly organised a seminar and a series of workshops on capacity building for post-disaster care respectively on 4 and 5 July on campus.
The seminar aimed at mobilising continued support from local healthcare and human service professionals to the earthquake survivors, affected families, frontline relief workers and vulnerable communities. International experts in disaster management and post-disaster care and local healthcare professionals shared their insights and experiences. They included: Professor Aiko Yamamoto, Executive Director, Research Institute of Nursing Care for People and Community, WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing in Disaster and Health Emergency Management, University of Hyogo, Japan, who made a presentation on “Earthquake: Community Rebuilding”; Mr Jeff Evans, Senior Lecturer, Disaster Healthcare, Department of Professional Education, Faculty of Health, Sport and Science, University of Glamorgan, UK, who presented on “Difficulties of decision making in post-disaster management”.
Mr Lau Ping-fat, Hospital Authority medical team member, together with Prof. Angelina Yuen Tsang, PolyU Associate Vice President and Head of Department of Applied Social Sciences, and Ms Sunshine Chan, Nurse Consultant of SN, also shared their experiences of delivering post-earthquake nursing and human services in Sichuan.
In addition, a series of post-seminar workshops were held on 5 July. A key feature of the workshops was to encourage dialogues and promote the establishment of partnerships between healthcare and human service practitioners, academics, specialists in accident and emergency nursing, and experts in disaster management and post-disaster care. The impact of disaster on various groups of people, such as parents, children, and people with chronic illness were examined during the workshops. Topics included: “Post-disaster care for parents and children: practical considerations”, “The role of nursing professional in earthquakes: from immediate response to community rebuilding”, “Art for healing the troubled soul”, and “The impact of disaster on people with chronic illness”.
For more details on the “Seminar and Workshops on Capacity Building for Post-disaster Care”, please refer to its official website at URL: http://sn.polyu.edu.hk/seminar/
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