As an initial activity of the Special Interest Group around facilitation and intervention in crises and disasters we were pleased to have an orientation session on disaster management by Rosanna Von Sacken, from Canada, who has worked in this field for 30 years.
Rosanna had previously worked in emergency management in Canada as well as having been a Director of the International Association of Facilitators.
This introductory session described the 4 phases of disaster generally used by many countries and the emergency framework used in North America and Europe. She also described typical post-disaster support needs and how and when psycho-social support might fit into the needs of a community post-disaster.
We are grateful to Rosanna for leading this introductory session! And we welcome the new members of this Special Interest Group.
We look forward to continuing to develop skills, share tools and techniques as well as reaching out to local agencies responsible for crisis and disaster responses in their communities.