Response, Stress Impacts of

[Page 604]Emergency situations are characterized by complex, chaotic operations that must be conducted with a high degree of dedication, responsibility, and efficiency. Commanders and coordinators are well aware that mistakes in decision making can put lives at risk. Moreover, during crises, a first responder or emergency manager may have to work long hours, and thus suffer a deterioration in morale and in the quality of his or her work.

Generally, disasters do not cause permanent mental illness, but they can result in states of stress or depression that require considerable effort to overcome. These may be present in both survivors and rescuers. For the latter, rescue operations that have failed in some way can lead to intense soul-searching, and spark the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), especially when harrowing failure resulted in injury or death that might have been preventable. Research carried out in the 1950s showed that emergency managers who have been at work for protracted periods of time can suffer from two conditions: the Magna Mater syndrome, which induces the manager to try and resolve all problems alone, and represents an inability to delegate decision making; and the Jehovah syndrome, which causes the manager to believe they can solve all problems that arise. Both conditions represent a loss of perception and an accession of rigidity, which usually result from acute fatigue and accumulated stress. The solution is for the person to find a substitute to do the job, take a break, relax, and perhaps sleep for a while until refreshed enough to resume work.

Most emergency operations centers are bicameral: they contain a room for conferencing, and a room for transforming the decisions into actions by communicating with the workers at the site of the emergency (the operations room). It is advisable to add a third room in which tired or stressed workers can relax, eat and drink, and perhaps also take a nap. This will improve their performance considerably.