@article {bnh-5594, title = {Public health and natural hazards: new policies and preparedness initiatives developed from an Australian bushfire case study}, journal = {Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health}, year = {2019}, month = {05/2019}, abstract = {

Objective: Public preparedness for natural hazard events is low. With worsening severe weather events due to climate change, public health policy and practices must evolve to more effectively engage communities. This study{\textquoteright}s findings identify and suggest new strategic public health policies to shift the practice of all-hazards preparedness into routine, everyday life.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews, focus groups and Thematic Analysis were used to investigate the interactions between participant groups: emergency responders and animal owners.

Results: Three policies designed to improve human safety and well-being are proposed and discussed. These are (i) a new system of workplace leave, (ii) an innovative regime of financial incentives for fire-ready properties, and (iii) review of the use of firebreaks on farms and rural blocks.

Conclusion: Policies proposed in this research aim to proactively narrow the awareness-preparedness gap and build adaptive capacity to minimise risk to human health in all-hazards contexts. Further research could evaluate the efficacy of trialled public policy.

Implications for public health: These new policies seek to contribute to establishing and maintaining a culture of preparedness as a routine aspect of everyday life, and thus promote and protect public health in the short, medium and long terms.

}, keywords = {animal owners, Bushfire, emergency responders, Preparedness, public health policy}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1111/1753-6405.12897}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1753-6405.12897}, author = {Rachel Westcott and Kevin Ronan and Hillary Bambrick and Mel Taylor} } @article {bnh-3380, title = {"Don{\textquoteright}t Just Do Something ... Stand There!" Emergency Responders{\textquoteright} Peri-Incident Perceptions of Animal Owners in Bushfire}, journal = {Frontiers in Veterinary Science}, volume = {4}, year = {2017}, month = {02/2017}, abstract = {

Introduction

Narrowing the awareness-preparedness gap in bushfires (wildfires) means that new strategies and tactics will be needed to improve human safety and survival in this increasingly frequent and severe globally significant natural hazard. One way to do this is to explore the peri-event experiences of novel demographic groups living and working in at-risk areas to determine how best to strengthen a collaborative, mutually beneficial interface with emergency responders. Thus, this study included participants from one novel demographic, animal owners, in combination with emergency responders. Animal owners themselves are a large, diverse group whose preparedness and response behavior has not been assessed with respect to their potential contribution to contemporary natural hazard management.\ 

Method

Data was collected using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions from four emergency responder classifications who were asked about their perceptions of animal owners in bushfire. Thematic Analysis (TA) was used for data analysis because of its flexibility and suitability to this pragmatic qualitative study. Results from the first of ten themes, chosen for its {\textquoteleft}overview{\textquoteright} properties, are discussed in this paper, and indicate that exploring the animal owner {\textendash} emergency responder interface has the potential to generate useful additions to public policy, and expansion of social theory.\ 

Conclusion

Analysis of the data in this paper supports the potential for positive outcomes gained by reciprocal collaboration between animal owners and emergency responders. Some simple practical solutions are evident and two major outcome streams are identified. These are (1) policy development and implementation, and (2) etiology of decision-making. Considerations and recommendations for research examining the efficacy of these streams and solutions are provided.

}, doi = {10.3389/fvets.2017.00034}, url = {http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fvets.2017.00034/abstract}, author = {Rachel Westcott and Kevin Ronan and Hillary Bambrick and Mel Taylor} } @article {bnh-3609, title = {Expanding protection motivation theory: investigating an application to animal owners and emergency responders in bushfire emergencies}, journal = {BMC Psychology}, volume = {5}, year = {2017}, month = {04/2017}, abstract = {

Background

Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) was developed by Rogers in 1975, to describe how individuals are motivated to react in a self-protective way towards a perceived health threat. Rogers expected the use of PMT to diversify over time, which has proved true over four decades. The purpose of this paper is to explore how PMT can be used and expanded to inform and improve public safety strategies in natural hazards. As global climate change impacts on the Australian environment, natural hazards seem to be increasing in scale and frequency, and Emergency Services{\textquoteright} public education campaigns have necessarily escalated to keep pace with perceived public threat. Of concern, is that the awareness-preparedness gap in residents{\textquoteright} survival plans is narrowing disproportionately slowly compared to the magnitude of resources applied to rectify this trend. Practical applications of adaptable social theory could be used to help resolve this dilemma.

Discussion

PMT has been used to describe human behaviour in individuals, families, and the parent-child unit. It has been applied to floods in Europe and wildfire and earthquake in the United States. This paper seeks to determine if an application of PMT can be useful for achieving other-directed human protection across a novel demographic spectrum in natural hazards, specifically, animal owners and emergency responders in bushfire emergencies.

These groups could benefit from such an approach: owners to build and fortify their response- and self-efficacy, and to help translate knowledge into safer behaviour, and responders to gain a better understanding of a diverse demographic with animal ownership as its common denominator, and with whom they will be likely to engage in contemporary natural hazard management. Mutual collaboration between these groups could lead to a synergy of reciprocated response efficacy, and safer, less traumatic outcomes.

Summary

Emergency services{\textquoteright} community education programs have made significant progress over the last decade, but public safety remains suboptimal while the magnitude of the awareness-preparedness gap persists. This paper examines an expanded, other-directed application of PMT to expand and enhance safer mitigation and response behaviour strategies for communities threatened by bushfire, which may ultimately help save human life.

}, issn = {2050-7283}, doi = {10.1186/s40359-017-0182-3}, url = {https://bmcpsychology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40359-017-0182-3}, author = {Rachel Westcott and Kevin Ronan and Hillary Bambrick and Mel Taylor} }