Scientific Journal of Rescue Relief
Volume:13 Issue: 3, Autumn 2021

Given that Iran is among the top five earthquake-prone countries in the world and no region of the country is safe from unforeseen crises, raising awareness regarding the victims' mental health issues is one of the top priorities limiting the extent of problems and subsequent consequences. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of psychological interventions in the well-being of adolescents surviving natural disasters as opposed to regular individuals.

The study population in the present cross-sectional comparative study consists of high school students (13–18 years old) from the earthquake-stricken village of Sarand in East Azerbaijan Province, and normal students from Zarnaq in the same province. They were assessed through the total population sampling method. The data collection tool utilized was a questionnaire (Ryff) to assess anxiety and depression. Data is analyzed and screened by measures of central tendency (mean and standard deviation) for the first section of variables. In the second section, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to test the research questions.

The earthquake group achieved the lowest and highest mean scores in the aspects of environmental mastery (9.46), personal growth (10.93), and purpose in life (10.90), respectively. In the Non-Affected group, the lowest mean score is associated with paranoia (2.25) and the highest mean score is linked to anxiety (3.86). The post-test revealed the lowest mean score in the control group was related to autonomy (11.09), and the highest mean score pertained to personal growth (14.38). The scores are normally distributed in all dimensions. Eventually, the obtained data indicated that the psychological interventions performed for the benefit of the disaster-stricken group were significantly more than the group that was not subjected to psychological interventions. However, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of sex.

Providing post-crisis social psychosocial support programs for adolescents consolidates cognitive and behavioral rehabilitation, diminishes stress and vulnerability, enriches relationships with peers, decreases psychosomatic disorders caused by the crisis, and modifies social performance. Moreover, spending time with their peers, family members, and relatives ameliorates various disorders and issues.

The main activities of the Red Crescent rescuers are to rescue and release the injured. Most of the actions of these forces in road accidents cause damage to the body and rights of injured persons and third parties. These damages, which are required to carry out the activities of the relief force, are allowed subject to the normal damage; however, they are responsible for the damages that result from their indulgence and misappropriation. The main question is "What are the legal principles of exemption of relief workers from civil liability and how is it possible to combine the protection of the rights of the victims toward their bodies, lives, and property with supporting the good intentions and actions of the aid workers and performing their legal duties?

This descriptive-analytical research describes the subjects or phenomena and their conditions and elements. Considering that to conduct research and explain the content, the provision of legal analysis is based on the analytical method, the method of data analysis is also based on the logical analysis. In this research, documents at traditional and digital libraries were used for data collection and note-taking was employed as the tool to gather data.

This study, through contrasting the two ideas of protecting aid workers and the rights of victims to physical integrity, aimed to destabilize the relief workers' exemption based on such principles as beneficence, rule of law, urgency, and benevolent intervention and determine the limits and conditions of such exemption to ensure that the guaranteed rights of the injured individuals are not violated on their bodies and property.

It seems that the rule of law is the only basis that can always justify the relief workers' exemption from civil liability and other justifiable factors cannot always be compatible with the situation of relief workers. According to the rule, beneficence, the rule of law, benevolent intervention, and urgency can be considered factors in exempting relief workers. However, matching the situation of the rescuers with the justifiable factors shows that the main basis of the rescuers' exemption is the rule of law, which gives them the authority and duty to carry out rescue operations, and the necessary damages to rescue the injured is based on the rule of "permission in the object results in permission in its consequences".

Natural disasters disrupt people's lives, bringing about serious economic and social losses. Disaster risk management is a set of measures, including planning, decision-making, accountability, and operational activities at all levels. Moreover, it is of considerable significance to take advantage of social capacities and community participation before, during, and after disasters. The present study aimed to explain the prerequisites of community-based disaster risk management in Iran in 2020.

This data-driven qualitative study was conducted using Strauss and Corbin's systematic approach. The statistical population included all disaster management experts
 and non-governmental organizations in universities, the National Disaster Management Organization, the provincial disaster management departments, and senior managers of the Red Crescent Society. Out of this population, 22 subjects were purposefully selected via snowball sampling taking into account the geographical, climatic, cultural, social, and religious diversity of different regions of the country. The data were collected via semi-structured interviews and analysed using open coding, axial coding, and selective coding.

Based on the obtained results, the prerequisites of community-based disaster risk  management include: "legal obligation", "public sensitization", "strategic planning", "public participation", "social capacity building", " building cohesion and empathy ", "action (prevention, preparedness, needs assessment, planning, and response", "formation and development of expert teams", "logistics forecasting and equipment", "preparation", and attention to geographical conditions".

As evidenced by the obtained results, the required measures for the successful implementation of community-based disaster risk management can be assigned to two categories: The first one encompasses the measures that require structural changes and law reform and are taken at the national level and National Disaster Management Organization of the country. The second type of measure must be implemented at the local and operational management levels.

This study aimed to investigate the impact of transformational leadership and organizational climate on the organizational self-esteem of the Mashhad Fire Department.

The present applied research is a descriptive survey. The statistical population of this study consists of all 210 firefighters in Mashhad fire headquarters. The sample size was calculated according to Morgan's table comprising 132 individuals selected through simple random sampling. Data collection was accomplished through three questionnaires: Bass and Avolio's (2000) Transformational Leadership Questionnaire (TLQ), Sussman and Deep's (1989) Organizational Climate Questionnaire, and Pierce et al.'s (1989) Organizational-Based Self-Esteem Questionnaire, whose validity and reliability were confirmed. The collected statistical data were analyzed within SPSS and Smart PLS software.

Data analysis confirmed all research hypotheses. Transformational leadership has a direct impact on organizational self-esteem with a path coefficient of 0.62. The organizational climate has a direct impact on organizational self-esteem with a path coefficient of 0.63. Components of transformational leadership including idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration affect organizational self-esteem. Components of organizational climate including clarity of and agreement on organizational goals, clarity of and agreement on role, satisfaction with rewards, satisfaction with and agreement on procedures, and effectiveness of relations affect organizational self-esteem.

Managing directors ought to reinforce employees' self-esteem to improve the performance of employees and boost productivity in the organization. In this regard, they must exercise an appropriate style in dealing with employees, which is the transformational leadership style. Moreover, a decent organizational climate should be created to build and boost self-esteem in employees and consequently enrich their performance towards fulfilling organizational goals.

Identification of the settlements located in high-risk zones in terms of natural hazards is one of the first steps in risk management and development planning. This study aimed to identify villages exposed to earthquakes and floods in South Khorasan province.

The present study used the Analytic Hierarchy Process method to evaluate the validity and reliability of measuring instruments through exploratory factor analysis. Since the value of the KMO index was 0.879, the number of samples was sufficient for analysis. Moreover, the significance of the Bartlett test was less than 5% and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was obtained at 0.856; accordingly, the questionnaire was reliable.

Based on the spatial analysis of the seismic vulnerability, 214 and 502 villages were in the zone of very high and high vulnerability, respectively. Moreover, the results of flood vulnerability showed that the southern and northwestern parts of South Khorasan province had the lowest vulnerability. The number of villages located in the very high vulnerable zone was very limited and included only seven villages of Chenesht, Kalateh Abbas, Takti Ti, Tangel Behdan, Ebru, Khankuk, and Ostan Siah, which are located in the east of the province.

Based on the integrated results of two hazards (i.e., earthquakes and floods), it is observed that 523 rural settlements are in a very high-risk zone, which accounts for 14.7% of the total settlements in the South Khorasan province, compared to the total rural settlements. Furthermore, the highest dispersion frequency of rural settlements is in the zone of moderate vulnerability. This zone with 1,344 settlements includes about 37.7% of the total settlements in the province

The present study aimed to investigate the elements of the self-care training curriculum for Iranian Red Crescent relief workers based on the Akker model. Exposure to accidents and disasters causes feelings of stress, anxiety, fatigue, weakness, and hopelessness. Due to the intense activities and the problems they encounter during traumatic episodes, they are endlessly anxious and stressed. However, they can control the pressures inflicted by the environment with the required training and effective scientific methods.

The present qualitative research study prevails based on the database theory. The statistical population comprises 25 curriculum experts and Red Crescent relief workers selected through purposeful and criterion-based sampling. After clarifying the theoretical founding and expert perspectives regarding designing self-care training curriculum and quality of life (QoL) theory, the basic concepts, and components or the logic of curriculum design were specified.

The results showed that the characteristics of the elements of the self-care training curriculum considering the focus and the characteristics of the quality of life (QoL) theory based on the logic of the curriculum in the form of a model are as follows.Objectives (general and specific), content characteristics (principles of organizing and content selection), teaching-learning methods (priorities of selection and types of teaching methods), teaching-learning activities of relief workers, assessment (consecutive assessment and self-assessment), study materials and resources (physical and non-physical resources), space (virtual and online, real: emergency, accident), time and place (flexible), grouping characteristics (developing relief workers’ sense of duty and belonging to the group in accidents and emergencies) and consequences: improving health literacy, correcting lifestyle, reducing the number of paramedics with contagious non-contagious diseases, diminishing the risky behaviors of paramedics, obtaining a set of skills and achieving individual, group and collective self-care competence. The model was validated and approved by experts and specialists through the Delphi method.

Presenting and implementing a self-care training curriculum in the in-service programs of the Iranian Red Crescent Society can boost their quality of life (QoL) and contentment, while fully preparing them to withstand and deal with emergencies.

Communication and information exchange are of great importance in order to coordinate crisis management in an emergency and rescue processes. Therefore, the attainment of a strong, complete, and stable communication infrastructure will be among the vital factors for providing an appropriate response to emergencies. The use of new technologies that seem to ensure reliable communication and information exchange must be constantly evaluates.

This review study searched articles published from 2000 to 2021 in Persian and English regarding blockchain technology applications in such databases as Google Scholar, Science Direct, and PubMed using keywords, including rescue, blockchain, and crisis management.

Accurate and optimal presentation of information is an essential prerequisite for crisis management in response to disasters due to the significant impact of each role-maker's decisions. Innovative blockchain technology is extensively used in various fields and is usually well-known and popular for its decentralized and distributed organization and leadership.

In general, blockchain technologies have shown success in reducing logistics, support, executive, and management costs in different areas. Crisis management in emergencies and disaster response can be significantly improved by the implementation of blockchain technologies. In addition, studies show that the implementation of blockchain technology in crisis management during an emergency and rescue processes is very complex and requires a great deal of cooperation from all parties. However, it will be effective in practice.

Organizational insentience has been one of the main challenges in recent years and refers to a situation in which employees of the organization have become indifferent to their organizational environment. This study aimed to design a model for dealing with organizational insentience in the Iranian Red Crescent Society.

In this qualitative study, after investigating the phenomenon of organizational insentience and reviewing the theoretical foundations, in-depth interviews were conducted with experts, managers, and masters in the Red Crescent Society. Theoretical saturation was achieved after conducting 21 interviews. Subsequently, the data obtained from the interviews were analyzed through grounded theory and qualitative coding (open, axial, and selective coding).

The findings showed that the main axial theme in this study was organizational insentience, and six themes of senselessness toward the concept of work, double standards, accountability, organizational discrimination, lack of strategic management procedures, and inability to implement policies were the requirements for dealing with organizational insentience, which were coded under the theme of causal conditions. In addition, such factors as decent governance, strengthening the psychological dimension, building trust, strengthening staff's skills, organizational independence, strengthening innovation and creativity, justice, supportive behavior, and supportive environment were selected as the main strategies to deal with organizational insentience.

It seems that the dominant organizational culture, along with management style and type of communication within the organization, has the main effect on the issue of organizational insentience

One of the factors that can create the necessary commitment among employees for the success of the organization is the prevailing atmosphere of the organization. In other words, a proper atmosphere and favorable moral climate help to improve performance, achieve goals, and maintain communication in the organization and play a vital role in the performance of the organization (in any field of work). Therefore, this study aimed to explain and design a spirituality-based work ethic model in the workplace in the Crisis Management Organization, Tehran, Iran.

This applied research was conducted based on a mixed methodology. The statistical population of this study in the qualitative part consisted of 128 directors of Tehran Crisis Management Organization in 2020-2021, reaching saturation with 19 people. Moreover, the statistical population of this study in the quantitative part included the staff of Tehran Crisis Management Organization in 2020-2021, among which 250 samples were selected based on Cochran's formula. The samples were chosen using stratified random sampling method and the instruments employed in the qualitative and quantitative parts were an exploratory and semi-structured interview and a researcher-made questionnaire, respectively. The collected data were analyzed in MAXQDA-2020 software and AMOS-26 software in the qualitative and quantitative parts, respectively. The AMOS software was used to measure the structural equation modeling and analyze the model fit indices.

According to the findings, the work ethic model was based on spirituality in the workplace. In this model, ethical commitment, professional commitment, and relationship commitment were considered causal conditions of spirituality-based work ethic in the workplace in the Crisis Management Organization. Moreover, organizational ethical climate, Islamic ethical culture, ethical leadership, and ethical and Islamic education were respectively considered a pivotal phenomenon, interactive strategies, intervening conditions, and contextual variables of spirituality-based work ethic in the workplace in the Crisis Management Organization.

The results of showed that all the reviewed indices were accepted to evaluate the fit of the modified structural model of the research. Given this, it can be said that the fit of this model was "approved". Furthermore, the total effect values of contextual variables, causal conditions, intervening conditions, strategies and interactions, and pivotal variables on spirituality-based work ethic in the workplace were obtained at 0.40, 0.51, 0.38, 0.65, and 0.61, respectively. The p-value of < 0.01 was considered significant.