It is essential to find out in what kind of situation the children are in the shelter and/or evacuation site. Sometime it is difficult to know where the children are. It is advisable to make special maps which indicate which children are in the shelter and/or evacuation site and which are elsewhere in a community, taking into consideration the time when another nurse will take over you.
The establishment of a new relationship among children at the shelter and/or evacuation site may sometimes depend on whether or not they have known one another before a disaster.
*
Existence of high-risk Children
It is essential to make sure whether each children receives the necessary care.
It is possible to think that high-risk children are susceptible to the influence of those around them and that vice versa.
Adults are usually away from an evacuate site during the day to clean up their houses or to work. It is necessary to make sure who takes care of children during the day and at night, or whether they have a dialog with their parent(s).
To best discover what kind of help each child needs, put yourself in their place and make sure they are being heard and understood.
How are the children behaving?
The way children behave reflects the conditions of their minds and bodies.
It is very important to perceive how each of them behaves and spends everyday at the shelter and/or evacuate site after a disaster. The information from adults around them may be very helpful. However, nothing is more helpful than to closely watch each of them.
For the children who require special medical treatments or equipments such as an oxygen or suction machine, they need to continue their life sustaining treatments and medicine, they may need to contact hospitals.
Children with mental or emotional problems
When those children are in a place, such as a shelter, where they have to live among strangers, they sometimes show excessive reactions to stimuli around them. Their reactions (hyperactivity or screams and cries) might be considered strange behaviors, and considered as strange and disturbing others.
Children who rely on others for their daily lives
These children require continual assistance for transportation or for everyday activities (meals, discharges, sleep, changing clothes and so on)
Children who have gone through a special experience when a disaster strikes
The experiences such as deaths or injuries of any of their family members, confinement in their houses or somewhere else, injuries of their own, the destruction of their houses or towns, and such may have caused or may cause psychological trauma, and therefore proper measures should be taken for each situation.
Children with psychological problems before a disaster
Children with maladjustment to an ordinary situation such as refusing to attend school, or having problems with a home environment and such may tend to be more susceptible to being hurt.
List 2: How children's behavior may change after a disaster
Children's behaviors and reactions that should be paid attention to
Explanations
Infants
*
Cry at night
*
sleep problems
*
increased sensitivity to even faint sounds
*
loss of facial expression
*
(fever, diarrhea, poor appetites, loss of appetite for milk.
Change of living environment and/or parent(s) reactions may cause children to show any of these reactions in their daily life. It is important for adults to talk or to have physical contact with them in a relaxed atmosphere.
Small children - school-aged children (in the lower grades)
*
Behaviors younger than their age. (Regressive behaviors such as thumb-sucking, bedwetting, pants-wetting, insist to be held, excessive clinging to parent, and so on.)
*
Loss of appetites, restlessness, apathy, emotional numbing, loss of facial expression, decreased concentration and attention span
The children exhibit different behaviors from their usual styles; i.e., easy to cry and/or to anger, increased irritability and/or impatience, and outburst of violent behaviors
*
make-believe earthquake, destroying of piled blocks, plays with violent actions.
*
Panic behaviors such as flashbacks
Parent(s) and a family member may be confused at the children's behaviors after a disaster in a strange environment such as shelter and/or evacuation site where things are totally different from usual. However, it is quite normal for children to show those reactions under such circumstances. As long as no serious problems arise, leave children as they are for the time being to see if they likely to return to previous functioning.
Explain the implication of children's reactions to their parent(s) or any of their family members and give them instructions to use a supportive and compassionate verbal or non-verbal exchange with the children to reassure them. For example playing with them or giving them a hug with compassionate words of reassurance. As unnecessary separations from their parent(s) and their family members give both children and their parent(s) and/or family members anxiety and fear, extremely careful consideration is required.
If any of these reactions on this list are repeated or prolonged, the intervention of medical professionals might be required. Therefore careful observation of children is important, and if necessary, make arrangements for the professional.
School aged children in the upper grades
*
Poor appetites, restlessness, apathy, emotional numbing, loss of facial expression, decreased concentration and attention span
The children exhibit different behaviors from their usual styles; i.e., easy to cry and/or to anger, increased irritability and/or impatience, and outburst of violent behaviors
*
Behaviors younger than their age. (Regressive behaviors such as thumb-sucking, and so on..
*
Fighting, breakiing things
*
Panic behaviors such as flashbacks
*
An asthma attack, skin rash, alopecia, stuttering, symptoms of transient autonomic imbalance
*
Excessively well-behaved children, excessively exertive / persevere children, quiet children
Children may feel helpless, isolated, or restless when they see adults busy rebuilding their lives and the lives of their families. Create work activities which children can join in to let them find their role as a member of their family or of their shelter and/or evacuate site. It is necessary to find work that is safe and achievable tasks.
It is important to explain to children how things are going and what adults are doing for reconstruction of living. Avoid attitudes that imply that children do not have to know what is going on. Children who understand what is going on around them may show excessive responses, trying to be unnecessarily patient or to avoid annoying others.
If any of these reactions on this list are repeated or prolonged, the intervention of medical professionals might be required. Thereof, careful observation of children is important, and if necessary, make arrangements for the consultation with professionals.
Small children - school-aged children (in the lower grades)
Name
Children's behaviors and reactions that should be paid attention to
check
notes
behaviors younger than their age. (Regressive behaviors such as thumb-sucking, bedwetting, pants-wetting, insist to be held, excessive clinging to parent, and so on.)
loss of appetites
restlessness
apathy, emotional numbing, loss of facial expression
decreased concentration and attention span
nail-biting, tic
frequent urination, bedwetting
self-harming
the children exhibit different behaviors from their usual styles; i.e., easy to cry and/or to anger, increased irritability and/or impatience, and outburst of violent behaviors泣く
make-believe earthquake, destroying of piled blocks, plays with violent actions.
Children's behaviors and reactions that should be paid attention to
check
notes
poor appetites
restlessness
apathy, emotional numbing, loss of facial expression, decreased concentration and attention span
nail-biting, tic、
frequent urination, bedwetting
bowel incontinence
sleep disorders, fatigue
The children exhibit different behaviors from their usual styles; i.e., easy to cry and/or to anger, increased irritability and/or impatience, and outburst of violent behaviors
behaviors younger than their age. (Regressive behaviors such as thumb-sucking, and so on.)
Understanding children in the shelter and/or evacuation site.
