Pediatric Terrorism and Disaster Preparedness: A ... - PHE Home

The goal of disaster life support training is to standardize incident response across the Nation as
a way of strengthening national public health. Basic disaster life support training provides a
didactic review of all-hazard topics, including critical information on the role of the health care
professional. Advanced disaster life support extends this training into incident-specific scenarios
(e.g., decontamination of mass casualties) through didactic training and interactive sessions and
drills. Drills for advanced disaster life support teams should include the following:
• Human pediatric simulator scenarios including decontamination for biological, chemical,
and nuclear hazards.
• Essential clinical skills, performed in central and mini clinical areas.
• Use and wear of PPE.
• Implementation of the incident command center.
Integration with Children’s Services
The pediatrician’s strongest role can be in helping hospital disaster planning teams anticipate and
manage pediatric victims who have been separated from their primary caregivers during a
disaster. These children need immediate support until a definitive caregiver can be located.
In the event that in-hospital support services are overwhelmed, other efforts will also be needed,
including the following:
• Alternative social support from the community. Community-based organizations can
provide clothing, toys, and bedside sitter support and communicate with family members
who may be out of town.
• Psychological support services from the surrounding community that can be brought to
the hospital.
• Outreach support teams, using community members, pediatricians, and mental health
providers. These teams can go into the communities, schools, daycare centers, churches,
etc., to provide stress debriefing, triage for further mental health care, and long-term
monitoring.
In the event that community support and child-protective services are also overwhelmed,
additional efforts will be needed, including the following:
• Alternative plans need to be in place to cope with a large group of children needing
immediate caretaker support (i.e., those who are orphaned or temporarily separated from
caretakers because of decontamination or medical treatment needs).
• Pediatricians can help families find alternative systems within their churches and
neighborhood communities.
• Pediatricians can create information cards of resources and supervise rehearsal scenarios.
Pediatricians also can help communities plan to provide other support services for families and
children:
• Establish a plan with existing communication systems (e.g., television, radio) to provide
ongoing information support.
• Plan for non-medical family support centers to provide water, food, clothing, etc.
• Plan for a system to notify next of kin (anticipation of this information system can be
done by pediatricians).
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