Health Needs Assessment in Disasters by Emergency Medical Teams in the ASEAN Region

Abstract

Introduction:

Japan International Cooperation Agency has started the project for strengthening the ASEAN regional capacity on disaster health management (ARCH Project) since 2016. This project conducted the start-up regional collaboration drill in ASEAN. All participants from ASEAN countries realized the need for a standardized assessment tool. Several UN agencies and international organizations launched assessment tools, but there is no standard assessment tool.

Aim:

To develop an integrated rapid health needs assessment (HNA) tool in the ASEAN region. This paper reports the development process of the HNA tool.

Methods:

The project established the project working group (PWG) to developing some tools. PWG consisted of the expert team, project team, Japanese Advisory group and twenty delegates from ten ASEAN member states. PWG established the cycle of the developing process of the HNA tool.

Results:

We created a health needs assessment form and a summary form. The assessment form consists of (1) Informant information, (2) Site information, (3) Overall situation of the site, (4) Public health, (5) Health facility damage. The summary form consists of (1) Informant information, (2) Site information, (3) Critical areas for support, (4) Situation of the site.

Discussion:

Frequently, the public health emergency operation center in an affected country is not able to obtain the critical information of an affected area in the acute phase of disasters. This HNA tool would be used in the acute phase by the Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) because the EMT has mobility and workforce for assisting the affected country. We have agreed on the usage of the assessment form as a kind of an “interview guide”. The purpose of this assessment form is to assess a disaster situation. The next step will be to provide more opportunities for the ASEAN member states to use and learn more about this HNA form.