Scientific Journal of Rescue Relief
Volume:10 Issue: 4, Autumn 2019

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that emerges due to severe stressful events including flood, earthquakes, war, aggression, etc. Due to the nature of their job, firefighters are at high risk of developing complications and psychiatric problems, including PTSD. The present study was carried out aiming to compare self-differentiation and neurosis among firefighters with and without PTSD.

The PTSD checklist developed by Weathers et al. was distributed among 180 firefighters directly active in the fire of the Plasco building in Tehran, Iran, in 2017. From among these individuals, 30 people with and 30 without PTSD were selected randomly. The participants completed the Differentiation of Self Inventory (DSI) developed by Skowron and Dendy and the Neuroticism Scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). There were no significant differences in terms of the components of emotional cutoff (EC) (F=0.973, P>0.05), emotional reactivity (F=0.404, P> 0.05), fusion with others (FO) (F = 0.338, P > 0.05), and I-position (F = 0.774, P > 0.05) between firefighters with and without PTSD. In addition, there were no significant differences in terms of neurosis between firefighters with and without PTSD (F= 0.034, P>0.05). Being in highly stressful circumstances for a long duration of time (about 10 days) and cognitive, emotional, and environmental factors seem to expose this statistical sample to PTSD. Moreover, in the firefighting recruitment process, complete medical examinations are performed, which can be the reason for the low and equal levels of neurosis and differentiation of self in all individuals with and without PTSD.

The present study was conducted with the aim to evaluate the performance of the applied science centers of the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) in crisis management. In this descriptive-survey study, 167 out of 295 managers and experts of the applied science centers of the IRCS were selected on the basis of the Cochran formula. To examine the study variables, a questionnaire including 37 items and 2 parts evaluating performance and crisis management was employed. The financial, customer, internal processes, and growth and learning performances were measured in the performance assessment section, and the 6 dimensions of flexibility, inclusion, trust, risk perception, fairness, and consistency were measured in the crisis management part. The reliability, content validity, and construct validity of the questionnaires were confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, a group of university professors, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), respectively. Then, inferential statistical methods such as the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test were used to ensure the normal distribution of data, and the structural equation model, Pearson correlation test, chi-square test, two-sample t-test, and one-sample t-test were used in the LISREL and SPSS software to test the hypotheses. The performance of the applied science centers of the IRCS in crisis management was higher than the average level based on the balanced scorecard (BSC) model. In addition, in terms of the 4 characteristics of financial performance, customer performance, internal process performance, and growth and learning performance, the crisis management performance of this organization was at a desirable level. It seems that policymakers, while maintaining the current situation, should plan for the development of crisis management, as well as for providing the ground for continuous improvement and better performance in this area.

The present study compared psychological disorders after the Bam earthquake in Bam and Kerman, Iran. This cross-sectional study was performed on 422 people (205 in Kerman and 217 in Bam) using stratified random cluster‎ sampling in the three age groups of adolescents, adults, and elderly people. The Symptom Checklist-90-Revised ‎(SCL-90-R) and a Personal information questionnaire were used to collect data. The analytical statistics from the mean total score of discomfort in the respondents in Bam and Kerman were compared separately in the 9 dimensions. According to the results presented in tables and charts, of the 9 dimensions of symptoms, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, violence, phobia, and psychosis were significantly higher in Bam compared to Kerman. Moreover, only the dimension of paranoia was not significant in the respondents in both cities. Furthermore, based on the comparisons, there was a ‎significant difference in the mean discomfort, total ‎Global Severity Index (GSI), and Positive Symptoms ‎Total (PST) between the two cities. However, ‎the difference in the Positive Symptom Distress ‎Index (PSDI) was not significant.‎ The results of this study showed that the Bam earthquake has increased psychological disorders in Bam city; thus, it is necessary to reduce the effects of these disorders in order to reduce the urgency of treatment in survivors.

Because of the vulnerability of human settlements to natural disasters and damage caused by them, the study of the resilience of settlements has become critical in planning urban areas. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate resiliency of Baghershahr, a town with a population of 65000, locates in 4 km from Tehran city, against earthquake. The research data were collected by survey method (questionnaire tool) and also by using statistical documents and documentary reports. AHP technique has been used to determine the coefficient of importance of indicators and descriptive statistics methods have been used in data analysis. The study area has, on average, only 36.6% of the ideal conditions of resiliency. The figure in institutional dimension was 25.5%, indicating that this dimension has lowest resilience compared with other dimensions. After this, the physical dimension has a figure of 31.7%. In case of economic dimension, the figure was 40.5% of the ideal rate of resiliency and the highest level belongs to the social dimension, which was 45.4%. The studied area is an example of Iranian settlements with very low resiliency. On one hand, low level of the resiliency of Baghershahr is due to the threats caused from its vicinity to the oil and gas refinery complex, the thermal power plant, the sulfur industry, and the numerous plastic recycling workshops, the huge stores of petroleum products, gas and crude oil and crude oil pipelines. On the other hand, it is due to sudden formation and uncontrolled rapid growth of the town which has been accompanied by widespread migration of low-income classes over the past few decades.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of emotional regulation skills training on happiness of rescuers of the Red Crescent Organization in Bushehr Province, Iran. This was a semi-experimental research with pretest, posttest, and control group. The statistical population of this study included all rescuers of the Red Crescent Organization of Bushehr Province in 2018. The study tool was the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ). Rescuers received emotional regulation training in eight 90-minute sessions, and the control group did not receive any training during this period. The comparison of pretest and posttest scores of groups showed a significant difference between the scores of rescuers in experimental and control groups in terms of happiness. Thus, emotional regulation training was effective on increasing happiness. The results of this study show that training of emotional regulation skills has important implications for improving the mental health of rescuers.

Timely delivery of emergency care and reducing the transmission time of injured people to health centers is very effective in reducing the number of deaths and injuries in accidents. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the factors affecting road traffic accident relief in Iran with an emphasis on air transport. The present study was performed through resorting to Multiple Attribute Decision Making (MADM) statistical techniques and operation research like analytic hierarchy process (AHP) by means of establishing hierarchy process, pairwise comparisons, combining weights, analyzing sensitivity, and ranking method, which were compatible with the research methods and type of variables. The study population consisted of 3759 managers, faculty members, experts in the field of rescue, and relief, and traffic users. 349 participants were selected using Cochran sampling method. They answered a researcher-made questionnaire about the factors affecting road traffic accident relief in Iran, which validity and reliability were approved. The collected data and research hypotheses were considered through statistical test. Expert Choice software was used to facilitate the process of research. Human factors, equipment factors, managerial factors, and environmental conditions criteria with relative weights of 0.3810, 0.3738, 0.2149, and 0.0303, respectively, had the highest effect on human casualties in rescue operations. Assessment of sub-criteria showed that the lack of a functional structure and appropriate organization to lead rescue operations, emergency and hospital personnel with lack of enough expertise and skill, and delays in rescue and increase in the time of rescue had the first places of importance, respectively. Finally, prioritizing rescue operations based on the type of transportation indicated that air emergency, ground emergency, and Red Crescent rescue and relief, had respectively the first, second, and third places in affecting the decrease in human casualties. Lack of expertise and skills of staff, equipment failure, and lack of systematic structure in relief systems have increased damage to the injured, and by creating substructure, air rescue is a priority in reducing human casualties compared to land relief.

Rural areas, usually when compared to other natural events, have the greatest vulnerability of human settlements. The aim of this study was to evaluate natural hazards as earthquakes, landslides, floods and identify high-risk zone in relation to the rural areas of the central township of Azna County, Iran. Topographic and geology maps, elevation digital model, and seismic and meteorological data along with field studies to investigate the location of villages in terms of natural hazards of earthquakes, landslides, and flood were used. Then, effective factors were identified in each of the hazards, and grouped in separate layers. The Arc GIS software was used to develop and integrate maps; AHP model and paired comparison method were used to weight effective factors in expecting any of the natural hazards, and to compare the criteria one by one; fuzzy logic model was used to standardize the layers in Arc GIS software; and the overlay model index was used to integrate final layers of natural hazards and determine high-risk zones. 49 percent of villages in privacy due to the major and minor faults were in the zone of high earthquake risk. The risk of landslides in areas where rural areas were based, due to the low gradient very low and only 10% of the villages are at risk of landslides. 14% of the villages in the privacy due to the major rivers, flood risk and the risk of flooding is very high. Prioritization of rural areas in terms of natural hazards by using AHP model shows that the 8 villages were located in high-risk areas. Providing maps of potential natural hazards can be helpful in crisis management and identification of the high-risk settlements.

Reducing vulnerabilities and enhancing capacities of communities to cope with disasters could be regarded as a new model in the disaster management approach. It changes traditional passive disaster response into an active resilience-based action. This new understanding can be considered as a way of treatment to get out of the critical traditional relief assistance as well as its challenges and bottlenecks. What is resilience and how to exploit Thomas A Spragens’ four-stage methodology of crisis theory, as theoretical justification of resilience, are two questions that the present study seeks to provide response to. The findings revealed that using Spragnes’ model including observation of disorder, diagnosis, reconstructing the polis, and prescription, the resilience process can be reconsidered in the field of disaster management, in order to present a comprehensive and systematized image of its role in the novel and resilience-based disaster management to the audience by putting it into the theoretical perspective.