The Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) is a multistage model that is based on findings from research on people's responses to environmental hazards and disasters. The PADM integrates the processing of information derived from social and environmental cues with messages that social sources transmit through communication channels to those at risk. The PADM identifies three critical predecision processes (reception, attention, and comprehension of warnings or exposure, attention, and interpretation of environmental/social cues)--that precede all further processing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs terrorist attacks increase in fre-quency, hospital disaster plans need to be scrutinized to ensure that they take into account issues unique to weapons of mass destruction. This paper reports a review of the literature addressing hospital experiences with such incidents and the planning lessons thus learned. Construction of hos-pital disaster plans is examined as an ongoing process guided by the disaster planning committee.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEspecially since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, governments worldwide have invested considerable resources in the writing of terrorism emergency response plans. Particularly in the United States, the federal government has created new homeland security organisations and urged state and local governments to draw up plans. This emphasis on the written plan tends to draw attention away from the process of planning itself and the original objective of achieving community emergency preparedness.
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