Scientific Journal of Rescue Relief
Volume:10 Issue: 3, 2018

Since crises are inevitable, it is essential to institutionalize preparedness measures and strategies for dealing with hazards among citizens with a comprehensive, planned and public policy. Under such circumstances, citizens will be able to save the lives of themselves and their family members, even if they had no power, sufficient knowledge, and motivation to help others or participate in DAVAM plan (local volunteer groups for emergency response). In this regard, this study aims to investigate the effect of Red Crescent Society public education on urban crisis management in Zahedan city. In this applied descriptive survey with correlation approach, citizens of Zahedan city were studied. In the following, a sample size of 384 was selected by using Morgan table based on simple random sampling. Data collected through Pourkarimi public education questionnaire (2016) and Jahromi crisis management questionnaire (2001). Experts confirmed the questionnaires content and structure validity through both confirmatory factor analysis and Amos software; also, the reliability was calculated using Cronbach's alpha (0.96 and 0.93). Data were analyzed using SPSS-20 software in descriptive statistics level (frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics level (Kolmogorov-Smirnoff test, Pearson correlation and multiple regressions). According to the findings, correlation between independent and dependent variable was 0.882 and coefficient of determination was 685, which indicated about 68.5% of urban crisis management capabilities are related to Red Crescent Society public education due to citizens’ point of view. However, the motivational mechanisms with regression coefficient (0.471), need assessment (0.268), and performance (0.1056) had the greatest impact among the components of public education respectively. In addition, the two components of design and assessment did not have a significant impact on urban crisis management based on calculate regression coefficients, t-statistic, and significance level. The results showed that public education Red Crescent Society has significant effect on urban crisis management.

Residential buildings are highly vulnerable to earthquakes and their destruction can cause many casualties and injuries. Hence, seismic assessment of buildings is necessary prior to earthquake which one of the methods is Rapid-Visual-Screening (RVS).  Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in its most recent guideline has presented some changes in the data collection form with a conservative approach for seismic assessment of buildings.

In this applied research, changes made in the data collection form of RVS, were identified and compared to the previous version. Using this form, seismic assessment of residential buildings of Ferdows neighborhood in 5th region of Tehran city was performed.

In the new version of FEMA, the data collection form for seismicity region is classified into five categories. Some factors such as building type, severe and moderate vertical irregularities, plan irregularity, built year, and soil type have been used to determine the final score. Among 816 selected buildings, 557 newly built buildings have achieved acceptable score and some of them got less than cut-off score. All 259 steel (URM) buildings in this neighborhood are vulnerable to earthquake.



The results of this research showed that many newly built buildings should be further evaluated by a design professional experienced in seismic design in order to determine whether they are seismically hazardous.  Reconstruction or strengthening of steel (URM) buildings is necessary as soon as possible.

Considering the existence of major faults in Tehran and probability of devastating earthquakes in this area, it seems essential to provide strategies for confronting the crisis and to manage the damages. Therefore, this paper aims to identify urban crisis management strategies in Eslamshahr County. In this descriptive analytic study, by using the SWOT, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats points of urban crisis management were studies in Eslamshahr County and optimized strategies were developed. Then, the strategies were ranked by using DEA (data envelopment analysis), a nonparametric method based on mathematical modeling. The findings showed that the final score of organization was 2.1 and 2.46 respectively according to the results of internal and external factors evaluation matrix analyzing. It was found that the strengths are less than weak points and available opportunities are less than threats in Eslamshahr county crisis management. Of the 25 SWOT-based strategies that prioritized by using DEA, the strategies of ST1 and ST2 had the highest priority. The results presented that strategies such as the use of specialized human resources to promote awareness, education, and safety culturalize as well as strengthening and empowering the crisis management unit in Eslamshahr county municipalities are the most important strategies

Today, employees in organizations tend to be more involved in their organization's decision-making and activities. In addition, job engagement brings positive results and make employees more engaged and enjoy being in the organization. Considering the growing importance of human resources as an organization's assets, the researchers decided to conduct a research about the job and factors for motivating employees. Therefore, this study aims to examine the relationship between job engagement and career adaptability dimensions among employees and relief workers in Semnan Red Crescent Society. In this applied and descriptive study, 200 employees and relief workers of Semnan Red Crescent Society were surveyed by simple random sampling. In addition, the standard questionnaires of Schaufeli et al. (2006) and Savickas et al. (2012) were used to measure work engagement and career adaptability respectively. Data was analyzed using structural equation modeling by Lisrel software. The results indicated that there was a positive and significant relationship between engagement with the job and the dimensions of career adaptability such as focus, control, curiosity, and self-confidence. Based on the results, matching the individual's characteristics with job characteristics improve employees’ performance. The more career adaptability will increase the effectiveness of employees in the job.

Emergency department is the heart of a hospital and the regular conduct of the affairs can save lives. In addition, teamwork in healthcare is the way of organizing activities that adopts a widespread approach to health needs and provides potential capacities for full utilization of human resource abilities. Therefore, it is important to study the efficiency of the emergency department and dividing people into effective teams; and it needs an appropriate tool and management structure to take quantitative and qualitative scales. In this study, a mathematical model has been presented to assess the effectiveness of teamwork in emergency stations in Shiraz by combining three perspectives of EFQM excellence model, balanced scorecard, and Data Envelopment Analysis that includes the advantages of three models and covers their defects to some extent.  In the proposed model, empowerment and results of the EFQM excellence model and balanced scorecard have been used to determine the input and output indices and to distinguish the human resource efficiency indicators of the teams respectively. First, decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and access to network structure have been used to determine the relation between the balanced scorecards. Finally, the Network Data Envelopment analysis model has been used to evaluate teamwork performance of bases staff in Shiraz emergency and to classify personnel into appropriate teams. In this research, three models including Network Data Envelopment analysis, Balanced Scorecard Analysis and EFQM Excellence Model were combined to identify performance assessment indicators of Shiraz emergency bases. Hence, while reducing the disadvantages the models benefits are strengthened, and a comprehensive model for evaluating the performance of this base was presented. According to the emergency standards, the personnel were categorized based on their total efficiency in four teams such as First Responder, Basic, Intermediate and Paramedic. The results presented that of the 141 emergency personnel, 18% should be in First Responder team, 61% in Basic team, 12% in Intermediate and finally 9% in Paramedic team.

Ashura has been the symbol of resilience of Imam Hussein and his followers during a great tribulation of the Islamic world. Mourning of Ashura has always been magnificent in the cities of Iran for many years. It seems that the mourning ceremony has a meaningful relationship with the resilience of society against disasters. Therefore, this research aims to study the role of ritual ceremony of Muharram in social resilience against disasters in Beryanak neighborhood, district 10 of Tehran city. In this descriptive survey, the effect of Muharram mourning ceremony on resilience studied and analyzed emphasizing on dimensions of social capital and vitality of Beryanak neighborhood. After reviewing literatures, the specialized texts, and deducing the indicators, distribution of questionnaires and field observations of Beryanak neighborhood conducted in Muharram 2018. The results analyzed using statistical methods including SPSS and Expert Choice software. In addition, the correlation between the variables of "Muharram mourning ceremony" and "social resilience against disasters" was evaluated using regression. The results showed that Muharram mourning ceremony as one of the most important social capital in Iran neighborhoods has a subjective (non-physical) and an objective (physical) aspect. This spontaneous, dynamic, and intrusive ceremony in spite of being mourned for Imam Hussein and his followers, lead to the vitality of neighborhood. The components of participation, communication, security, religious activities and place attachment, which are the most important indicators of social resilience increase from 10 to 30 percent in Muharram compared to other days of the year. This article concludes that Muharram mourning ceremony leads to the promotion of resilience to disasters. In other words, the social resilience of Beryanak neighborhood from the point of view social capital and vitality of the neighborhood on ordinary days is about 45%, which is increasing by 60% during Muharram. In general, public awareness and preparedness for disasters in the neighborhood are estimated 40% and 45% respectively. Muharram mourning ceremony includes capacities and potentials such as locating and conducting Tekyeh on different scales at the neighborhood level by people that can be used as temporary housing during the crisis

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a syndrome that occurs after hearing or observing a severe stressful and damaging factor and can lead to death, although it can be improved with treatment. This study aims to investigate the effect of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on post-traumatic stress disorder among the earthquake-affected people of Sarpol Zahab city, Kermanshah province in 2017. This research is a single-case design with multiple baselines that was used to analyze the data obtained from graphical analysis. After confirmation by psychiatrists and with clinical interviews, one person among the clients to the relief camp of local psychologists was selected based on available samples randomly. The findings indicated that cognitive behavioral therapy had a positive effect on reduction of post-traumatic stress disorder and patient's recovery was 81.7% which has somewhat prolonged during follow-up. According to the results, cognitive behavioral therapy is effective in reducing and improving the symptoms of post-traumatic anxiety disorder.

Every crisis requires leadership. One type of leadership is freedom-thinking leadership. Which is an approach of leadership that strives simultaneously enhance the professional development of employees, and increase job improvement and help organization development by combining working groups and social groups, participation, decision-making and moral and compassionate behavior. In other words, a freedom-thinking leader is who has the ability and guidance to achieve organizational goals. One of the leadership components is education and improvement. Education focuses on excellence and is related to the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed by individuals to carry out their current job in a routine manner with existing responsibilities. Therefore, in this research, the effect of freedom-thinking leadership on crisis management was studied with an emphasis on training and improving staff in the branches of Red Crescent Society of West Azarbaijan. In this descriptive-applied study, all employees of Red Crescent Society branches of West Azarbaijan province were studied (262 people). Of these, 159 people were selected according to Cochran's formula. In the next step, data collected through three questionnaires including a researcher-made freedom-thinking leadership, staff training and improvement and crisis management. Structural validity and Cronbach's alpha coefficient were used to determine the reliability and validity of questionnaires. Data analyzed by using descriptive statistics methods such as abundance, cumulative and relative frequency, and mean. Different methods and techniques of MANOVA and stepwise regression correlation coefficient were used in the inferential statistics section. The results showed that relationships between variables such as system thinking, achievement of goals, helping individuals and teams, an being example for others, dive freedom, encouragement and support, trust-based relationships, and crisis management are significant  and meaningful with the training and improvement of employees. The results showed that among the components of freedom-thinking leadership, giving freedom has the greatest impact on crisis management emphasizing staff training and improvement. In addition, other components such as being an example for others, achievement of objectives, trust-based relationships and helping people and teams have the highest beta and most impact on crisis management respectively.