Emergency Response and the Psychological Needs of School-Age Children

Abstract

Children have specific needs that experts often overlook in emergency response plans (ERPs).The purpose of this study was to explore experts’ recommendations regarding including children’s needs in current ERPs and their opinions regarding whether the inclusion of developmentally protective elements in ERPs mitigates psychological trauma in the 6- to 10-year-old child. Content analysis of telephone interviews provided understanding of these phenomena from the perspectives of 16 national experts in the areas of physiological and psychological trauma, public health, and emergency planning. Overall, experts noted that children’s psychological needs are not included in current ERP. Key findings emphasize the need to create useable and meaningful (operationalized) planning tools; the importance of training at every level of both the population and the response systems regarding the physiological and psychological developmental needs of children; the need for research on children’s response to natural disaster; and the importance of incorporating these findings into emergency planning. Experts recommend a flexible framework to integrate children’s needs into the complex process of disaster planning.