Health disaster management

The Northern Territory Government has adopted a comprehensive approach to emergency management that recognises the following elements:

• prevention - activities to seek to eliminate or reduce the impact of a hazard
• preparedness - establishing emergency organisations, developing plans and testing arrangements, as well as providing public education and information
• response - effective response involves activating preparedness arrangements and plans immediately after any hazard impact
• recovery - assisting communities affected by emergencies to help them recover emotionally, socially, economically and physically.

Recovery from a major emergency or disaster is coordinated through the Department of the Chief Minister.

Emergency management training

To ensure NT Health maintains its ability to respond in an emergency or a disaster, training is an important component of our emergency planning.

Emergency management training can be informal or formally obtained through:

• in-time or on-the-job
• self-learning packages such as CDs or DVDs
• group training, such as workshops, discussion, simulations, table top and multi-agency exercises
• accredited under and post-graduate learning provided by universities or other registered training providers
• Australian Emergency Management Institute (AEMI) courses.

Disaster response training

At the beginning of each 'disaster' season, which runs from October to April, department response groups in each region undertake a training workshop to ensure their readiness to respond.

The following emergency management and clinical practice courses are held by the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre (NCCTRC):

• Major Incident Medical Management and Support (MIMMS) Team and Commander Course
• trauma response training - strategies to decrease psychological trauma of staff responding to an event
• Emergo-Train - a disaster simulation exercise and training system that uses a series of whiteboards and magnetic symbols to represent resources available, incorporating a patient bank with descriptions of injuries and potential clinical interventions.