TM5550 - Environmental Health in Emergencies and Disasters

Credit points:	03
Year:	2009
Student Contribution Band:	Band 2
Administered by:	Sch Public Health,Trop Medicine&Rehabilitation Sc

Environmental health problems arising from emergencies and disasters pose generally non-complex threats to human health, well-being and survival on physical, biological and social levels. In these situations, leaders and managers with environmental health responsibilities need to make decisions to: 1) reduce public vulnerability to hazards; 2) increase public resilience and recovery capacity; 3) strengthen routine services to minimise potential health effects; and 4) respond to emergencies with appropriate environmental health activities. This subject provides a planning framework for emergencies and presents an overview of the technical aspects of environmental health management and would be of interest to anyone playing a leading role in community development, emergency preparedness and/or resonding to an emergency or disaster.

Learning Outcomes

• to convey the importance of setting immediate and long-term health priorities in emergencies and disasters within the context of overall health lans and interdisciplinary disaster management;
• to foster consideration of environmental health needs in emergencies and disasters in terms of a set of interventions aimed at reducing community vulnerability;
• to provide guidance on environmental health actions in the prevention, preparedness, resonse and recovery stages of the disaster-management cycle;
• to outline approaches to decision-making; to convey the need for, and approaches to, coordination and collaboration between all sectors;
• to describe simle, practical, technical interventions which will meet the priority environmental health needs of communities; to describe related aspects of primary health care, including training programs, information systems and community involvement.

Graduate Qualities

• The ability to use independent judgment to synthesise information to make intellectual and/or creative advances;
• The ability to make constructive contributions to project teams or collegial activities.

Availabilities
External, Study Period 1
Census Date 27-Mar-2009
Coord/Lect:	Dr Deon Canyon.
Method of Delivery:	and WWW - LearnJCUPrinted materials
Assessment:	assignments.

Note: Minor variations might occur due to the continuous Subject quality improvement process, and in case of minor variation(s) in assessment details, the Subject Outline represents the latest official information.