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Emergency responders’ experiences of and expectations regarding decontamination

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 19:14 authored by Holly Elisabeth Carter, John DruryJohn Drury, G James Rubin, Richard Williams, Richard Amlôt
Purpose: There is an assumption in emergency planning that the public will ‘panic’ or refuse to comply in the event of mass decontamination. This assumption has serious implications for how the public will be managed. Method: We carried out semi-structured interviews with 13 emergency responders, six of whom had experience of incidents involving decontamination. We asked them, first, about their experiences of these events and, second, about their expectations for decontamination involving a large crowd. The aim was to explore the extent to which responders perceived non-compliance and anxiety as (crowd) problems during decontamination, and if so, how they felt that they could be addressed. Findings: Responders with experience of decontamination perceived non-compliance and excessive anxiety to be rare, and suggested that orderly behaviour was more common. However, the majority of emergency responders with no experience of decontamination said they expected panic and non-compliance. They therefore emphasised the importance of ‘controlling’, rather than communicating with, the public. Implications: We argue that ‘control’-based emergency management strategies can impact negatively on the relationship between the public and responders, and hence hinder effective management of an incident. It would therefore be beneficial to provide training for emergency responders on likely public behaviour during incidents involving decontamination. Originality: This research extends previous research by facilitating a detailed understanding of emergency responders’ experiences and perceptions of managing incidents involving decontamination, and showing how these experiences and perceptions can affect the way in which such incidents are managed.

Funding

Health Protection Agency

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

International Journal of Emergency Services

ISSN

2047-0894

Publisher

Emerald

Issue

2

Volume

3

Page range

179-192

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2014-12-07

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2014-12-07

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