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Articles

Planning to Plan: A Process to Involve Child Welfare Agencies in Disaster Preparedness Planning

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Pages 483-501
Published online: 24 Nov 2009
 

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when child welfare officials in Louisiana reported they did not know the whereabouts of all their children in foster care, disaster planning in public child welfare became a new area of concern. This article reports on a process of engaging seven public child welfare agencies in planning for disasters that could affect child safety and service delivery. The Washington Metropolitan Area Disaster Planning Project used a strengths-based approach to help agencies responsible for protecting and serving children in foster care and families at risk of abuse and neglect develop plans to augment and continue service delivery and responsiveness in the aftermath of a natural or man-made disaster. The processes of gathering information on disaster responsiveness, interviewing community and professional informants, developing a template to guide disaster planning within the agencies, and implementing a tabletop exercise are described. As a result of this consultation effort agencies became aware that disaster planning at the state and county levels had proceeded without child welfare at the table, that the increase in need for child welfare services during a disaster was not recognized by disaster professionals, and that practicing disaster responsiveness is necessary to assure readiness.

The authors would like to acknowledge and thank the public child welfare administrators, supervisors, and staff who participated in this project, the Freddie Mac Foundation, and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

Notes

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iiAmerican Bar Association. Help in legal and judicial system responses to children and families affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Retrieved December 11, 2006, from http://www.abanet.org/katrina

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vCatholic Charities USA. (2006). Blessings after the storm: Catholic Charities 2005 hurricane ministries. Washington, D.C.: Author.

viWebster, S., & Roe, M. (2006, December). Case planning desk reference for emergency situations. Washington, D.C.: Children's Bureau.

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viiiUnited States Government Accountability Office. (2006). Gulf coast hurricanes: Lessons learned for protecting and educating children (GAO Publication 06-68OR). Washington, D.C.: Author.

ixGAO, Child Welfare: Federal action needed to ensure states have plans to safeguard children in the child welfare system displaced by disasters, July 2006.

xSeigel, L., Cooper, C., & Hastings, A. (2005, November). Planning for emergencies: Immediate events and their aftermath: A guideline for local courts. State Justice Institute. Washington, D.C.: American University.

xiCatholic Charities USA. (2006). Blessings after the storm: Catholic Charities 2005 hurricane ministries. Washington, D.C.: Author.

xiiUnited States Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (2007). Guidance on preparing workplaces for an influenza pandemic (OSHA Publication No. 3327–02N 2007). Washington, D.C.: Author.

xiiiGAO–07–485R Public health and hospital emergency preparedness programs: Evolution of performance measurement systems to measure progress. Washington, D.C.: Author.

xivHagan, J. (2005). Psychosocial implications of disaster or terrorism on children: A guide for the pediatrician. Pediatrics, 116, 787–795.