Invite to a Disaster

 INDIVIDUAL
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 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

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GROUP

"THREE DAYS AFTER THE JANUARY 14, 1907, JAMAICAN EARTHQUAKE, two American naval ships, the Missouri and the Indiana, alerted by their newly installed radio receivers, moored in Kingston Harbour and disembarked sailors who patrolled the streets, shared provisions, and brought the injured to the ship's hospital. ...

When the island's British governor, Alexander Swettenham, discovered the American presence, he was apoplectic and demanded an immediate re-embarkation and expelled the US ships. The diplomatic crisis was only resolved weeks later after the governor issued a formal apology and resigned. The incident highlighted the need for international protocols around disaster diplomacy. To attend another country's catastrophe you need an invitation. The following year the first rescuers in Messina the day after the December 28, 1908, earthquake were sailors from the Russian cruiser Admiral Makarov, accompanied by two naval escorts that happened to have been moored down the coast at Augusta. Within days, rival fleets arrived from Britain, France, and the United States. A catastrophe now provided the unanticipated world stage on which nations projected their international status through the strength and speed of their humanitarian missions. Kurt Waldheim, secretary-general of the United Nations, said in 1978: "Four years ago I believed that humanitarian relief was above politics. Now I know that humanitarian relief is politics." pp.201-202.

 
Robert Muir-Wood (2016) The Cure for Catastrophe: How We Can Stop Manufacturing Natural Disasters, London: OneWorld Publications. ISBN-10: 1786070057

See also ...

The nature of catastrophe and disaster

'Faulty thinking' or 'Thinking faulty'?

The nature of catastrophe and disaster

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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group - population

"Across northern Europe the earthquake inspired a shift from a philosophical "best of all possible worlds" optimism, ruled over by a beneficent God, to a new, darker world order of rational scepticism.	"Disaster" derives from the Greek for an ill-fated, or "bad" star  - in Italian, the dis-astro. "Disaster" captures the essence of astrology. A conjunction of planets, or the passage of a comet, triggers a calamity on earth.
The contrasting old and new worlds are captured in the original meanings of the terms "disaster" and "catastrophe."	"Catastrophe" describes the final resolution of the story in a Greek drama. In a tragedy by Aeschylus or Euripides, within the "catastrophe," one or more of the characters will die. The catastrophe is the inevitable consequence. The catastrophe is the moral." p.40.

 

Robert Muir-Wood (2016) The Cure for Catastrophe: How We Can Stop Manufacturing Natural Disasters, London: OneWorld Publications. ISBN-10: 1786070057

a Paper: Hodges' model and mental health nursing in bushfire-affected communities

An email from ResearchGate informed me that a co-authored paper:

Doyle, M., Jones, P. (2013). Hodges’ Health Career Model and its role and potential application in forensic mental health nursing. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing. 20, 7, 631-640.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2850.2012.01961.x/abstract

- had been cited in another publication. A check was rewarded. It always feels good to be able to add a  study to the bibliography listing (please see the sidebar). This is an early view, by Brent Hayward in Australia:

Hayward, B.A. (2020), Mental health nursing in bushfire‐affected communities: An autoethnographic insight. Int J Mental Health Nurs. DOI: 10.1111/inm.12765

What stands out to me are Hayward's profession of mental health nursing within a public educational service and disaster response. I'm not sure how many times I have referred to the generic nature of Hodges' model, but this shift from reading a forensic paper to applying h2cm in disaster response is encouraging. While the immediacy of today's media brings home the catastrophic scale and tragedy of bushfires - work like this also reveals the humanistic side.

The research method of autoethnography has definite currency. Since the MRES at Lancaster, I have wondered if there is any autoethnographic merit in this blog? Hayward has clearly seen the value of the model with regard to reflection and self-reflection. Over the past few years - Brexit, climate change, the bushfires (and California) the importance and relevance of the political domain within Hodges' model continues to increase. (The content of many posts should provide evidence of this.)

It also appears that Hodges' model can draw out the distinction between intrapersonal and interpersonal relations and reflexivity. It could be argued that the humanistic-mechanistic axis also demarcates what is intrapersonal and what interpersonal. The latter standing for the (overt) skills so essential to effective mental health nurses. Hence, what are labelled the interpersonal and sociological domains. The combination of autoethnography, gestalt and use of a visual prompt for reflection is also informative and as Hayward notes could provide an avenue for the work of others. ...

"My unsuccessful attempt to locate literature about mental health nursing in bushfire-affected communities caused me to look towards nursing models more broadly. I was drawn to Doyle and Jones’ (2013) paper on the application of Hodges’ Health Career Model in forensic mental health nursing because of its deliberate consideration of political issues. This resonated with me as a public sector employee. Hodges’ model was originally developed in 1983 but has received little attention in the literature. Doyle and Jones’ paper was in response to this deficit, and in this frame, the present study continues this legacy. Hodges’ model is appealing here because of its attention to reflective practice and the theory-practice gap–two purposes which are of particular relevance in the present study." pp.2-3.

"Second is the use of a nursing theory or model to interpret findings. Only Gardner and Lane (2010) used a model, and this was one for clinical supervision rather than mental health nursing practice per se. Mental health nurses who are considering autoethnographic approaches should consider these methodological elements for both rigour and practical purposes. This study has also contributed the second published clinical application of Hodges’ model and its effectiveness here suggests that further exploration of its application would be useful." p.6.

I would like to express my sincere thanks to Brent for not only recognising the potential of Hodges' model, but actually applying it in research* and in such a vital context.

Hopefully I can reflect more on what is clearly for Hodges model and the concepts of health career, life chances and global health - a very significant paper.

*See also:

https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2013/12/papers-actual-post-grad-studies-and.html