Introduction
The field of emergency management is always evolving. Threats, technology and legislation changes make it impossible for the roles and responsibilities for emergency managers to be written in stone. Right now there are several key needs that have to be met by future emergency managers if the country is to be able to respond to emergencies in an effective and efficient manner.
Dealing With New Trends
The first issues that future emergency mangers will need to deal with are changing social trends and demographics. (Hite, 2003, pg. 19). With an anticipated boom in the elderly population (pg. 7), emergency managers of the future will not only need to plan ahead for extra evacuation assistance, but they will also need to be able to coordinate extra medical support and special ambulance transports for victims and evacuees. They will also have to deal with sensory deficiencies like hearing loss and vision loss issues when delivering emergency information to communities.
Another population change that future emergency managers will have to plan around is expanding cultural, racial and ethnic diversity in communities. (pg. 7). Because of this change, emergency mangers will need to take extra steps to ensure these special populations will be able to understand emergency communications and so that emergency workers and first responders will be able to help these special populations without creating cultural conflicts. Multi-language emergency warning techniques and strategies will need to be developed and implemented in order to protect all citizens in a jurisdiction.
Expanded Knowledge Base
The second issue that future emergency managers will have to deal with is the need for an expanded knowledge base. Hite, 2003, pg. 20). Modern emergency mangers have a variety of backgrounds. Some graduate to their position as an emergency manager from a military position or from a first responder position. Others make the transition to this position right from college. While both of these career paths provide the emergency manager with skills and experiences that help them in their role as an emergency manager, they don’t provide the emergency manager with the variety or depth of skills and experiences that will be needed to deal with complicated hazards like terrorism and mass destruction disasters.
There are several recommendations that have been made that address the experience deficits that current emergency mangers have. First of all it is recommended that future emergency managers take some coursework in criminal justice, public administration, community planning, and seismology. (Hite, 2003, pg. 20). Other areas of concentration include communications, budgeting, public relations, media and technology.
Maintaining an All-Hazards Approach
While the field of emergency management is always in flux, it has been decided that the “all-hazards” approach to emergency management needs to be maintained. (Hite, 2003, pg. 20). In the past, the focus of emergency management has flip flopped between civil defense and natural disaster response. Today, emergency managers have to deal with both of these emergency types as well as terrorism threats. It simply is not practical, or cost effective, to design a response plan for each type of emergency situation. However, an “all-hazards” approach allows emergency managers to establish a general response protocol that has the basic frame work that will function for all types of hazards while still being flexible enough to respond to specific hazard-based needs.
Better Interagency Relationships
Another major issue that future emergency managers need to address is developing better interagency relationships. (Hite, 2003, pg. 20). These relationships should not only establish trust and respect between the emergency manager and the various emergency response agencies in a community, but they should also be designed to improve the communication between the emergency manager and outside agencies and emergency response players. The ultimate goals would be to reduce conflict, streamline response efforts, reduce overlap and eliminate gaps in the response plan.
The Role of Technology and Research
Technology and research are two areas of emergency management that have been significantly neglected in the past. (Hite, 2003, pg. 20). While the structure, organization and performance of emergency management systems have been conducted, few, if any, studies have focused exclusively on what an emergency manager does and how their efforts impact the success of an emergency response effort. This is an area of concern that future emergency managers will need to address to validate the importance of their role and to establish a functional job description that will outline what they need to accomplish in their role as the community’s emergency manager. According to Dr. Pine, these studies would also need to “(1) clarify the role of the emergency manager, 2) facilitate realistic expectations, 3) integrate technology into the system, 4) access and integrate data in a timely fashion, and 5) examine human and system factors.” (pg. 15).
Technology is going to play a key role in emergency management and response in the future. It will be used to run simulations of complex hazard scenarios, to route emergency calls, to keep emergency responders connected and to help track and predict natural hazards. However, in order for new technologies to be integrated into the current emergency management system several changes will need to be made including: training in the use of GIS and GPS technology, the integration of technology vendors and developers into the emergency management family and the development of secure XML standards. (Hite, 2003, pg. 17).
Conclusion
The changes that future emergency managers need to deal with have all ready begun to impact the field of emergency management. Emergency response failures, like the one experienced during Hurricane Katrina, need to be viewed as learning experiences so that mistakes made are not duplicated. The world will never be hazard free and because of this there will always be a need for highly trained and highly skilled emergency managers, however, what their responsibilities are and what resources they have at their disposal need to be studied, evaluated, and reworked so that people in these positions will be able to not only understand what their job is, but so that they can also execute their duties in a way that allows the rest of the emergency response team to do their jobs successfully.
Reference
Anez, Bob. (2001, March 22). “Western Montana Boom.” Missoulian. Online version accessed 09.09.07 from http://missoulian.com/special/population/322-01.html
Hite, Monique C. (2003, June 13). “The Emergency Manager of the Future.” Washington D.C.: The National Academies Press. Downloaded from
