Surveying mental health stressors of emergency management professionals: Factors in recruiting and retaining emergency managers in an era of disasters and pandemics.

Emergency managers are responsible for managing crises and disasters, and while their work is essential, it can be stressful and impact their mental health, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to examine the mental health of professional emergency managers and factors associated with their intent to leave the field before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 903 respondents completed an online survey assessing their secondary traumatic stress, emergency reaction strategies, organizational culture, age, length of time in primary position, the highest level of education as well as other metrics.

Struggling, Forgotten, and Under Pressure: A Scoping Review of Experiences of Sex Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly affected physical, mental, and economic well-being across the globe and has disproportionately affected certain vulnerable groups. This paper provides a scoping review of literature on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sex workers, published between December 2019 and December 2022. Six databases were systematically searched, identifying 1009 citations; 63 studies were included in the review.

Chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosives (CBRNEs) preparedness for sporting event mass gatherings: A systematic review of the literature.

Objective: Sporting events often constitute mass gatherings (MGs) featuring large crowds of spectators and participants. Our objective is to understand the current state of emergency preparedness for sporting events by examining past MG sporting events to evaluate mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery against chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNE) events.

Methods: In accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, a systematic literature review was carried out among 10 literature databases.

Strategies to Counter Disinformation for Healthcare Practitioners and Policymakers.

Medical disinformation has interfered with healthcare workers' ability to communicate with the general population in a wide variety of public health contexts globally. This has limited the effectiveness of evidence-based medicine and healthcare capacity. Disinformation campaigns often try to integrate or co-opt healthcare workers in their practices which hinders effective health communication.

When disaster management agencies create disaster risk: a case study of the US's Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Purpose: Disaster management agencies are mandated to reduce risk for the populations that they serve. Yet, inequities in how they function may result in their activities creating disaster risk, particularly for already vulnerable and marginalized populations. In this article, how disaster management agencies create disaster risk for vulnerable and marginalized groups is examined, seeking to show the ways existing policies affect communities, and provide recommendations on policy and future research.

Corruption and disasters in the built environment: a literature review.

This paper presents the findings of a review of academic literature concerning the degree to which corruption worsens disasters triggered by natural hazards in the built environment. The research employed a 'systematic literature review' methodology to analyse leading academic databases, resulting in a detailed analysis of 59 peer-reviewed, published papers. It found that while much of the literature focuses on earthquakes (relating to building and infrastructure collapse), the quality of governance, and the drivers of corruption, there is presently very limited scholarship on the general scope, reach, and scale with respect to how disasters are worsened by corruption.

Delivering the Promise of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Contexts (FCAC): A Case Study of the NGO GOAL's Response to the Syria Conflict.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) has helped to reduce global disaster risk, but there has been a lack of progress in disaster risk reduction (DRR) for people living in fragile and conflict affected contexts (FCAC). Given the mounting evidence that DRR cannot be implemented through conventional approaches in FCAC, serious efforts must be made to understand how to meet SFDRR's goals. This paper offers a case study of international non-governmental organization GOAL's programming that responds to the protracted crisis in Syria, with critical discussion on SFDRR and how to adapt humanitarian relief and disaster resilience.

Psychological Consequences of the Flint Water Crisis: A Scoping Review.

Objective: To summarize existing literature on the mental health impact of the Flint Water Crisis.

Methods: In March 2020, we searched 5 databases for literature exploring the psychological consequences of the crisis. Main findings were extracted.

Converging Impact of the Ongoing Conflict and COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders in Ukraine.

Since the Russian annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the subsequent occupation of parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Ukraine has been facing increasing security and healthcare challenges. The seven-year war in East Ukraine has led to a rise in substance and alcohol use and increasing addiction rates among veterans, internally displaced persons, and civilian survivors. This article examines the combined impact of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian conflict and COVID-19 pandemic on substance use in Ukraine.

Practitioner Approaches to Measuring Community Resilience: The Analysis of the Resilience of Communities to Disasters Toolkit.

To be useful for operational programs, measures of resilience must not just be valid, but be easy to use and useful. Unfortunately, while resilience measurement techniques have progressed tremendously over the past decade, most progress has been on improving validity rather than utility and ease of use. In this article we present a new tool for measuring community resilience that incorporates issues of utility and ease of use, the Analysis of Resilience of Communities to Disasters (ARC-D) toolkit.

"Emerging Technologies and Medical Countermeasures to Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Agents in East Ukraine".

Since 2014, Ukraine has been beset by an armed conflict with international and internal dimensions. The nature of this conflict is multidimensional, and disaster preparedness and response in this context must be as well. Health experts from Ukraine, the United States of America, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, and Norway convened for an educational event in Dnipro, East Ukraine on November 11-15, 2019.

Incorporating Issues of Elderly Loneliness into the Coronavirus Disease-2019 Public Health Response.

As the systems that people depend on are increasingly strained by the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, public health impacts are manifesting in different ways beyond morbidity and mortality for elderly populations. Loneliness is already a chief public health concern that is being made worse by COVID-19. Agencies should recognize the prevalence of loneliness among elderly populations and the impacts that their interventions have on loneliness.

The Conflict in East Ukraine: A Growing Need for Addiction Research and Substance Use Intervention for Vulnerable Populations.

Security and trauma challenges in Ukraine have been constantly evolving since the 2014 Russian military incursion of Crimea and War in Donbass. One long-term consequence of the conflict in East Ukraine is the toll of substance and alcohol use and addictions that may have been triggered by the conflict among the veterans, internally displaced peoples, and civilian survivors. Further funding and research on substance and alcohol addiction with these vulnerable populations affected by the ongoing Ukrainian conflict should be examined.

The Landscape of Disinformation on Health Crisis Communication During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Ukraine: Hybrid Warfare Tactics, Fake Media News and Review of Evidence.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the world in ways not seen since the 1918-1920 Spanish Flu. Disinformation campaigns targeting health crisis communication during this pandemic seek to cripple the medical response to the novel coronavirus and instrumentalize the pandemic for political purposes. Propaganda from Russia and other factions is increasingly infiltrating public and social media in Ukraine.

Technological advancements to address elderly loneliness: Practical considerations and community resilience implications for COVID-19 pandemic.

Purpose: Loneliness has been a known severe public health concern among the elderly population during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this paper is to discuss the practicalities of using emerging technologies to address elderly loneliness and its implications and adaptations to the outbreak of coronavirus disease-2019.

Design/methodology/approach: The authors draw on examples from the literature and their own observations from working with older adults, to provide an overview of possible ways technology could help this population in the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Research fatigue in COVID-19 pandemic and post-disaster research: Causes, consequences and recommendations.

Purpose: Research fatigue occurs when an individual or population of interest tires of engaging with research, consequently avoiding further participation. This paper considers research fatigue in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic, to identify contributory factors and possible solutions for future post-disaster research.

Methodology: We draw on examples from the literature and our own observations from the recruitment and data collection phases of qualitative and quantitative studies, to provide an overview of possible research fatigue in the current COVID-19 pandemic, with implications for future post-disaster research.

What Do We Mean by 'Community Resilience'? A Systematic Literature Review of How It Is Defined in the Literature.

Background: Government, industry and charitable organisations have an increasing focus on programs intended to support community resilience to disasters. But has consensus been reached as to what defines 'community resilience' and what its core characteristics are?

Methods: We undertook a systematic literature review of definitions of community resilience related to disasters. We conducted an inductive thematic analysis of the definitions and descriptions that we identified, in order to determine the proposed characteristics of community resilience prior to, during and after a disaster.