The application period is now open for the National Fire Academy. The open dates are October 15 through December 15, 2011 for the classes scheduled for April through September, 2012. If you have not been to the National Emergency Training Center (NETC) in Emmitsburg, Maryland you are missing a national gem of emergency response and emergency management training. Three entities occupy the grounds of the National Emergency Training Center- the National Fire Academy, the Emergency Management Institute and the United States Fire Administration. Located in northern Maryland, just 10 miles from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, it is the ideal location for great training and to meet other responders from all over the country. Take a box of business cards and be prepared to enlarge your professional network many-fold. The variety of classes range from technical to executive and are provided in a college atmosphere and professional environment. You say your budget can’t afford travel to Maryland…? The classes are free, your lodging on campus is free and the airfare is reimbursed. Your only direct cost is your meal ticket at the campus meal hall. Funded by Congress through the Department of Homeland Security via FEMA’s budget, this is a “don’t miss” destination as early as possible in your career. Here’s the website to get you started.
www.usfa.fema.gov
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Quote: Adaptation Relies on PeopleShould somebody just say it? No, they aren’t prepared. They aren’t listening to us.
However, there is good news in that there are many anecdotal stories about taking a class or getting prepared and then that new preparedness came in very handy soon after. But on a larger scale, what percentage of the population is prepared the way we want them to be? My experience is that it is very small… and to us in the industry, we cannot figure out why people don’t listen to us and heed our warnings. This is National Preparedness Month and we all focus staff time, money and other resources on the problems, but does it change behaviors? This is an excellent piece just released by CalEMA. Please review it after you finish reading this blog.
The world of adult education has taught us that you can change human behavior using a combination of methods to motivate the adult learner. These are referred to learning domains- and both adult education, as well as childhood education base curriculum development on the learning objectives of what you want to accomplish at the end of the instruction
Cognitive- this is the “knowing” or “thinking” domain. The adult learner changes their behavior because they now know something new. People know they should get prepared. Why don’t they?
Psychomotor- this is the “doing” or “manipulative” or “hands-on” learning. Some people just don’t have the tools or the skills to do some tasks. Changing a battery in a smoke detector, securing the water heater to the wall, exposing your street numbers so emergency responders can find you—these are all items that require some degree of “doing” with your hands.
Affective- this domain is the core of what we try to teach and preach in preparedness. This is the “feelings” or “emotional” aspect of learning. For adults, this domain is the most important because it is the power behind making the change. It is also the most difficult to teach and measure, in terms of quantifiable behavior changes.
“It’ll never happen to me” is clearly an affective response to the need to be prepared. People may KNOW what to do and be able to DO it, they just don’t. Here is where we need to focus our attention and efforts and find ways to reward and reinforce desired behavior; deter undesired behavior/no action.
We live in the greatest country in the world and our citizens believe that public safety services will ALWAYS be there to assist and rescue them, no matter what hazards they are facing. But in this age of fiscal constraints, an increasing number of jurisdictions will not be able to sufficiently respond to a disaster, regardless of the intent.
Myths and bad information still create an obstacle for us to overcome. “I don’t wear my seatbelt because I don’t want to be trapped in the burning car when it explodes.” Really? Yes, those kinds of arguments can still be heard. The list of excuses and lack of action is a mile long. This is not unique in our field. The medical professionals fighting obesity, heart disease, smoking and so on also face the same challenges—getting adults to change behaviors. Social marketing really started in the public health world, (anti-smoking, immunization, AIDS prevention, etc.) but it has been very successful in traffic safety (seat belt compliance, sober driving, and child passenger safety).
The job of Prevention and Preparedness will never be done—we have job security, so to speak, since there will always be an audience we need to touch and people’s behaviors we need to change. Here is a call to action for more aggressive partnerships with the private sector - businesses, nonprofits, community groups, churches, etc. - to make a difference!
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Let’s pretend for a minute that you know nothing about baseball. The manager says you’ll be in the starting lineup today at short stop and you’ll be batting 5th in the order. You’ll be facing a southpaw with an ERA under 3.00 with a wicked split-finger fastball. By this time you’d be speechless. What does all that mean? The point of this analogy is that when you are assigned to work a disaster, you are working within a system that is in place—with positions and rules, terminology and slang vocabulary—you are in the INCIDENT COMMAND SYSTEM (ICS). I can tell you first-hand that the nation’s fire service “gets” ICS; law enforce is “getting” ICS; emergency managers are “getting” ICS—but realize that your non-emergency partner agencies and non-governmental organizations (faith-base, charities and non-profits) are not playing the same game as you. They don’t know the positions and they don’t know the rules and they certainly don’t know the vocabulary and terminology. This past spring, we have had dozens of disasters hit and the work is getting done. Imagine how much easier and better coordinated things would be if everyone knew the rules of the game. National Incident Management System (NIMS) compliance has been a requirement now for some time, and frankly, too many people are giving it lip-service and not implementing it as a standard practice. In a recent conversation I had with Charley Shimanski, Senior Vice President, Disaster Services, American Red Cross, I asked Charley why the Red Cross was so reluctant to implement ICS as part of their Disaster Services Human Resources (DSHR) matrix. He told me that the Red Cross is moving towards ICS but has other priorities to address first. ICS is a tried and true system of managing small to catastrophic events. Encourage all of your team and partner agencies to take ICS classes and use ICS in your exercises and small events. When you do, it will be a lot more natural for you when you are working shoulder-to-shoulder with other agencies in an EOC or command post. ICS classes can be found online at: http://training.fema.gov/IS/NIMS.asp
Phil Davis, MPA
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