Broadening the Mandate of the Incident Command System to Address Community Mental and Behavioral Health Effects as Part
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ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS (A MILLER AND D SANDLER, SECTION EDITORS)
Broadening the Mandate of the Incident Command System to Address Community Mental and Behavioral Health Effects as Part of the Federal Response to Disasters Bernard D. Goldstein 1
# Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Purpose of Review In the United States, the Federal Incident Command System (ICS) directs response to major oil spills. Its initial imperative is to prevent immediate impacts on human health and safety. Subsequently, the ICS primarily turns its attention to environmental concerns, including considering vulnerable ecosystems. There is a growing body of evidence that disasters such as major oil spills lead to adverse psychosocial effects; yet, preventing such effects has not been formally incorporated into ICS disaster mitigation considerations. Recent Findings Community mental and behavioral effects are increasingly recognized as a significant impact of disasters. Standardized ecosystem analytical frameworks are key to ICS responses to its mandate for environmental protection. Similar frameworks have only begun to be developed for mental and behavioral effects. Summary Providing the ICS with a formal mandate would likely lead to the prevention of community mental and behavioral effects being more systematically incorporated into ICS disaster responses. Keywords Disaster response . Incidentcommand system . Mentaland behavioral health . Deepwater horizon oil spill . Community health
Introduction Every disaster is disastrous in its own way [1]. But there are a few common threads. One is the requirement for rapid reaction, including quickly obtaining the information that helps guide effective response. Another is the growing evidence of significant mental and behavioral impacts in affected communities. Among the very positive advances in the U.S. disaster response has been the development of the incident command system (ICS) [2–5]. This centralized authority has improved clarity and efficiency through providing authority for galvanizing and distributing potential response elements. For many foreseeable disasters, the ICS role in leading the disaster
This article is part of the Topical Collection on Environmental Disasters * Bernard D. Goldstein [email protected] 1
Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, 166 N. Dithridge St Apt A5, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
response has been worked out in advance, including assigned leadership roles, functions, and priorities. Human health and safety has highest priority for the ICS. But the concern is usually limited to the immediate health and safety implications of the disaster, such as explosions and fires, rather than to the less dramatic but potentially longterm mental and behavioral impacts that have been commonly found in oil spills affecting workers and communities [6, 7]. However, it has become increasingly evident that these less dramatic disaster impacts are highly significant and deserve further consideration. I discuss how this could be accomplished through form
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