Individual Communication Crisis

Individual Communication and Crisis Paper
Amanda Cummings
HCS/320
Sandra Anderson
August 12, 2013

Hello, my name is Amanda Cummings and I am the director of the Manhattan Regional Emergency Management Office. I am receiving official reports about many people getting sick from drinking the water in Manhattan and the surrounding areas. It is now known that there is a life-threatening biological agent in the water system called tularemia. It is still unknown how it got into the water systems but together we will be able to work as a team to resolve the issue and protect the lives of the residents in this area. Many will ask what tularemia is because it is not a common life-threatening agent that many know about. Tularemia is an infectious
disease caused by the bacterium Francisella turlarensis. (San Luis Obispo County, 2013) Normally this disease is passed to humans from a tick bite or handling an animal that has been infected with this disease. Though it is also able to be passed to humans if they ingest the disease from contaminated water, soil, or even food that has be contaminated. It is also important to know that it can NOT be passed from human to human with direct contact. (San Luis Obispo County, 2013) There is usually a 3-5 day incubation period before symptoms can occur. The symptoms of this disease are chills, eye irritations, fever, headache, joint stiffness, muscle pains, a red spot on the skin growing into a sore, shortness of breath, sweating, and/or weight loss. (Medicine, 2013) There is good news to this disease and that is that is treatable. They treatment for this disease is simply antibiotics. There are two known ones that work to get of this infectious disease and they are Streptomycin and Tetracycline. They have both have been tested and have had great results. There are some cases of death with this disease. There is a five percent chance of death in untreated cases and only a one percent chance of death in treated cases. (Medicine, 2013) Those are great odds that we will get through this with minimal fatalities. From here we will be contacting the Center for Disease and Control (CDC) and will be working together to help resolve the contaminating and to get the water safe again.
We will also be contacting some local groups like the Kansas State University science department to help aid in the research needed to rid the water systems of this life-threatening agent. In addition to the groups above we will be using the local, state, and federal groups to help prevent panic by keep the public calm. They also have additional areas for research that we will be able to utilize to help resolve this issue quicker. We have also contacted the Red Cross to come and lend a hand and to bring fresh potable water for the residence and if needed medical tents to take care of the people who are sick and needing treatment. We have also contacted areas outside of the infected areas to try to supply fresh water to this area as well. It is also important to contact more doctors and hospitals outside of the area that is infected to alert them on the off chance that we need to send them people for
treatment. Now that we know these reports are serious and have been confirmed, we must hold a news conference and let the public know what is going on and what has been found in the water system. There is not a not a need to panic, but to refrain from drinking the water. We have already contacted the Red Cross and other counties outside of the infected area and potable water is on the way. It is important to answer as many questions about this disease that we can. This will help to prevent panic because we are able to inform of this issue and give as much information about it. Now there will be many people who are going to try and take this out of context and make it seem like a terroristic attack but we must insure them that, that is not the case. Bring the media in on this is going to have its ups and downs. Hopefully by talking to certain local stations beforehand about the importance of prevent panic that they will help aid it by not turning it into something it is not. We will be working with the local channels to keep them up to date with all the information that we have. By doing this they will not need to add information that they find online about this disease. As for the national channels that will be a harder thing seeing as they are not able to be here and get all the information that we have available. Though with the technology that we do have we may be able to email or video conference them to inform them and their public about the situation that in unfolding here in Manhattan. We also have our social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to alert everyone about information that we have just received. If this had happened back in 1979 with the Nuclear reactor malfunction or even back in 2005 with Hurricane Katrina we would be able to utilize the technology we have available to alert the area and the country about this issue. Though using social media can also be a problem because someone can post something that is not accurate and it can cause a panic in the streets. All it takes sometimes is for one person to write the 100 people have died and then you have everyone rushing to the hospitals even if they have no signs or symptoms of the disease. As long as we are honest to the people about everything that is going on we will able to limit the challenges in communication that we have. There is always a chance of having a few challenges when it comes to a crisis which can range from communication to fixing the problem. It is important to try and predict these challenges as well as realizing that there are some that we cannot predict. I feel that in this case the main challenge will be fixing the solution. There can be set back like waiting in the labs to find out if boiling the water could killing this disease or if there has to be a drastic measure taken to killing the disease in the water system. We will also need to see if it is likely to spread to other areas and if so how long will it take if we do not find a treatment for it. Another major challenge is to keep all the different organizations on the same page about what is going on with the issue at all times. One way to keep this from happening is to hold a daily meeting or telephone/video conference where we are about to talk about the progress and setbacks that have occurred throughout the day and the night before. By the end of this crisis situation I am able to see that there needs to be many different people involved when there is a crisis. I feel that this has showed me the importance of communication as well. If we can communicate to each other as a team it can make any job, task, or situation run smoothly with fewer complications. There is always going to be challenges that will arise with any task or issue, but it is important for everyone to expect them and to address them as they come and work on them one at a time as a team until they are completed. It is also important to ask for help when needed. If we do not seek help when needed, nothing will get done properly or in a timely manner. In this cases if we did not have the outside help we may not have figured out a solution as to why people were getting sick and may not be able to get to the bottom of this issue, and that is need to protect the resident of this area. I will be able to use this information to improve health care communication strategies by being able to put together a plan to handle any issue that may arise and being able to present it to others and getting them on board with it.
Being able to teach others the same thing that I have learned will ensure that the communication strategies will continue to improve because more people will be able to put these plans together and implement them. As a team working together these plans can be a group effort and will take the stress off of one person to complete it alone. I have learned that there are times when making a plan is important to do alone, but in most cases if you are working in a team as a team you are more likely to cover all areas as you can get perspectives from views you yourself may not have thought
of.
References

Du Pre, A. (2005). Communicating about health: Current issues and perspectives. Boston, MA: Mcgraw Hill.
Medicine, U. N. (2013). Tularemia. Medicineline Plus.
San Luis Obispo County, C. (2013). Type of Biological Agents.