Should leadership minimise suffering? This book argues yes: offering leaders, especially those in disaster management, a way to improve their ability to lead, serve, and protect others during disasters and crises. Drawing upon his own experiences as a disaster management specialist as well as high-level interviews with disaster management leaders from the USA, Australia and New Zealand, Crosweller bridges theory and practice to achieve three objectives. Firstly, to establish the political and socio-cultural context in which disaster management leaders find themselves when seeking to protect citizens and minimise their suffering and vulnerability. Secondly, to provide an empirical account of how certain sociocultural influences affect their efficacy as leaders and that of their organisations, when seeking to improve well-being, provide protection, and reduce suffering and vulnerability. Third, to propose a relational leadership framework centred upon an ethic of compassion, and supported by behaviours, characteristics, and practices that can guide leaders when addressing the causes of suffering and vulnerability across the entire disaster management cycle. This framework progressively emerges as the reader navigates their way through each chapter. An essential text for aspiring and experienced leaders, especially those in the fields of Emergency Medical Services, fire services, law enforcement, and emergency management. It will also appeal to students and researchers in related disciplines.

The stress that comes with being a first responder has been known to lead to depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicide. However, few clinicians are informed about these health concerns and how to adequately treat them in this population. Therefore, there is an urgent need for practitioners to understand the latest information regarding treatments that will be useful to this specific population. Mental Health Intervention and Treatment of First Responders and Emergency Workers is an essential reference source that focuses on the latest research for diagnosing and treating mental health issues experienced by emergency personnel and seeks to generate awareness and inform clinicians about the unique circumstances encountered by these professionals. While highlighting topics including anxiety disorders and stress management, this book is ideally designed for clinicians, therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, practitioners, medical professionals, EMTs, law enforcement, fire departments, military, academicians, researchers, policymakers, and students seeking current research on psychological therapy methods regarding first responders.

Identifying a new approach to disaster response: spontaneous, compassionate, and impromptu actions to alleviate suffering. In Spontaneous Venturing, Dean Shepherd and Trenton Williams identify and describe a new approach for responding to disaster and suffering: the local organizing of spontaneous, compassionate, and impromptu actions—the rapid emergence of a compassionate venture. This approach, termed by the authors “spontaneous venturing,” can be more effective than the traditional “command-and-control” methods of large disaster relief organizations. It can customize and target resources and deliver them quickly, helping victims almost immediately. For example, during the catastrophic 2009 bushfires in Victoria, Australia—the focal disaster for the book—residents organized an impromptu relief center that collected and distributed urgently needed goods without red tape. Special bonds and friendships formed among the volunteers and victims; some were both volunteer and victim. Many victims were able to mobilize resources despite considerable personal losses. Shepherd and Williams describe the lasting impact of disaster and tell the stories of Victoria residents who organized in the aftermath of the bushfires. They consider the limitations of traditional disaster relief efforts and explain that when victims take action to help others, they develop behavioral, emotional, and assumptive resilience; venturing leads to social interaction, community connections, and other positive outcomes. Finally, they explore spontaneous venturing in a less-developed country, investigating the activities of Haitians after the devastating 2010 earthquake. The lesson for communities hit by disaster: find opportunities for compassionate action.

In the devastation that follows a major disaster, there is a need for multiple sectors to unite and devote new resources to support the rebuilding of infrastructure, the provision of health and social services, the restoration of care delivery systems, and other critical recovery needs. In some cases, billions of dollars from public, private and charitable sources are invested to help communities recover. National rhetoric often characterizes these efforts as a "return to normal." But for many American communities, pre-disaster conditions are far from optimal. Large segments of the U.S. population suffer from preventable health problems, experience inequitable access to services, and rely on overburdened health systems. A return to pre-event conditions in such cases may be short-sighted given the high costs - both economic and social - of poor health. Instead, it is important to understand that the disaster recovery process offers a series of unique and valuable opportunities to improve on the status quo. Capitalizing on these opportunities can advance the long-term health, resilience, and sustainability of communities - thereby better preparing them for future challenges. Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters identifies and recommends recovery practices and novel programs most likely to impact overall community public health and contribute to resiliency for future incidents. This book makes the case that disaster recovery should be guided by a healthy community vision, where health considerations are integrated into all aspects of recovery planning before and after a disaster, and funding streams are leveraged in a coordinated manner and applied to health improvement priorities in order to meet human recovery needs and create healthy built and natural environments. The conceptual framework presented in Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters lays the groundwork to achieve this goal and provides operational guidance for multiple sectors involved in community planning and disaster recovery. Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters calls for actions at multiple levels to facilitate recovery strategies that optimize community health. With a shared healthy community vision, strategic planning that prioritizes health, and coordinated implementation, disaster recovery can result in a communities that are healthier, more livable places for current and future generations to grow and thrive - communities that are better prepared for future adversities.

We live in a time when empathy is not only lacking but on the decline. Kids are bullied because of the color of their skin, religion, culture, a disability and more. Bullying and cyberbullying are increasing, especially for black and brown kids, LGBT youth, and Jewish and Muslim youth. Fueled by decreases in respect, kindness, and compassion, the house is on fire! Empathy may be not be a cure-all, but just a little effort can transform a child into a more sensitive, caring human being. The good news is that empathy – the ability to “walk in someone else’s shoes” – can be taught. This book is all about teaching adults to teach empathy to kids. The payoff will last a lifetime. In this helpful guide, parents, caregivers and teachers are coached to help their children and students to develop social-emotional skills that will equip them to better navigate the world with self-compassion and empathetic concern. The Empathy Advantage is for the busiest parents and educators. It provides tips, strategies, online resources, and activities that are fun and engaging and take just 10 to 20 minutes. It emphasizes the importance of starting early, being good role models, spending quality face-to-face time together, and more. It will help readers understand the dynamics of bullying and teach children to stand up not only for themselves but others. And it explores other topics including managing media in the home, the value of pets in inculcating empathy, active listening, and self-compassion – i.e. being as forgiving and kind to yourself as you would to a friend.

How do we define compassion? Is it an emotional state, a motivation, a dispositional trait, or a cultivated attitude? How does it compare to altruism and empathy? Chapters in this Handbook present critical scientific evidence about compassion in numerous conceptions. All of these approaches to thinking about compassion are valid and contribute importantly to understanding how we respond to others who are suffering. Covering multiple levels of our lives and self-concept, from the individual, to the group, to the organization and culture, The Oxford Handbook of Compassion Science gathers evidence and models of compassion that treat the subject of compassion science with careful scientific scrutiny and concern. It explores the motivators of compassion, the effect on physiology, the co-occurrence of wellbeing, and compassion training interventions. Sectioned by thematic approaches, it pulls together basic and clinical research ranging across neurobiological, developmental, evolutionary, social, clinical, and applied areas in psychology such as business and education. In this sense, it comprises one of the first multidisciplinary and systematic approaches to examining compassion from multiple perspectives and frames of reference. With contributions from well-established scholars as well as young rising stars in the field, this Handbook bridges a wide variety of diverse perspectives, research methodologies, and theory, and provides a foundation for this new and rapidly growing field. It should be of great value to the new generation of basic and applied researchers examining compassion, and serve as a catalyst for academic researchers and students to support and develop the modern world.

Managing the Human Dimension of Disasters provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis on how individuals cope with tragedy and loss. Kjell Brataas gives a voice to those who have suffered and have been affected by unimaginable trauma. Noted experts recount stories and share their knowledge of how they assisted victims following tragedies such as the Manchester Arena bombing, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, terror attacks, several aircraft disasters and school shootings, the 9/11 attacks and the COVID-19 pandemic. The book focuses on those affected by a disaster, including the bereaved, survivors and first responders. Leaders of support groups formed after these tragedies, trauma therapists and psychologists from three continents offer their experiences dealing with victims and the aftermath of disaster. Chapters provide guidance on memorializing tragedies, site visits, donation management, media relations, social media, grief counseling and human resilience. Readers will be shown that psychological support is critical after a disaster and learn from those who deal with emergencies. Brataas’ unmatched volume offers new understandings, recommendations, best practices and benchmarks on how best to assist victims in the aftermath of disaster. A valuable resource for students, researchers and practitioners.