After the Emergency

Page 30

​You put a lot of time and thought into preparing for an emergency.

• If you survived one, how well did your plan work? 

Assess how each step in the plan worked for children, parents, staff, and local emergency officials. Despite your best efforts to reassure and present a calm, safe environment, staff and children may experience some distress. Signs and symptoms of distress may be withdrawal or depression, feelings of helplessness, uncharacteristic acting out or anti-social behavior, or physical symptoms such as headache, bladder/bowel problems, chest pains, and changes in eating and sleeping patterns.  

While professional assistance may be needed, you can help overcome this post-traumatic stress by giving them correct information about the disaster, letting them help put things back to normal, and providing opportunities to talk and share their feelings. Now is the time to plan for the next emergency. Rewrite your Emergency/Disaster Plan if your evaluation shows the need. Restock the emergency supplies you used. 

Optional Resources for Further Study

• ​Public Health - Seattle & King County Disaster and emergency preparedness resources
• Sample Disaster Plan (from the Child Care Licensing Guidebook) ​
• Sample Parent Communication Letter PDF File
• Helping Children Cope in the Wake of Tragedy or Disaster by Karen Stephens, 2005 Child Care Information Exchange​
• Planning and Preparing for Emergencies for Schools and Childcare Centers, CDC 
• Emergency Disaster Preparedness for Child Care Programs, National Health and Safety Performance Standards: Guidelines for Out-of-Home Child Care, American Academy of Pediatrics
• After the Disaster: Helping Children and Families Cope (booklet pdf) Designed to assist families to help their children cope through the “storm” of any disastrous or traumatic situation.
• Emergency Preparedness Planning Guide for Child Care Centers & Child Care Homes, Illinois Dept. of Public Health

Course Navigation Menu

1. Course Agenda
2. Health and Safety​
3. Preventing Injuries
4. ​Safety Regulations (1/11)
5. Hazards (2/11)
6. Risk of Injury
7. Developmental Age (3/11)
8. Safety Policies​
9. Safe or Unsafe (4/11)​
10. Hazard Analysis (5/11)​
11. ​Supervise the Children

12. Staff Ratios (6/11)
13. ​Regular Safety Checks
14. Burns and Fire
15. Burn and Fire Prevention
16. Hot Liquid Burns (7/11)
17. ​Strangulation & Suffocation
18. Falls
19. Poisoning
20. Poisoning can be Prevented
21. ​Drowning
22. ​Emergency Procedures

​23. Emergency Experiences (8/11)
​24. First Aid
25. Minor Injuries (9/11)
26. Disaster Preparedness
27. Emergency Preparedness (10/11)
28. Missing Child
29. Authorized Persons
30. After the Emergency
31. End of Course Quiz (11/11)
32. Evaluation Form
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