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HI emergency simulation exercise - Reconstitution of a rehabilitation unit set up in a tent to recreate the conditions in which HI provides ambulatory care to patients. | © C. Clavel / HI
HI is now pre-qualified to join the WHO's emergency medical teams and is preparing the new rehabilitation professionals in its HR pool to work in humanitarian crises.
When populations are affected by a humanitarian crisis, the needs for immediate rehabilitation care for injuries or illness are considerable. Indeed, a rapid response is vital to prevent the onset of permanent disabilities. The scale of these needs also disrupts existing services and has a major impact on the most vulnerable populations and the weakest healthcare systems.
To provide a better response to the healthcare needs of these populations, the World Health Organization (WHO) has put in place the Emergency Medical Teams (EMT) system. HI is working with WHO to obtain accreditation as a specialised emergency rehabilitation team and become part of this system.
Since the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, HI's teams have been working closely with WHO to provide the best possible response to the challenges of coordination and standardisation required by humanitarian responses in emergencies.
In order to be deployable as quickly and efficiently as possible when a humanitarian crisis occurs, HI has significantly strengthened its human resources and logistical capacities. We have developed a pool of rehabilitation professionals (physical therapists, occupational therapists and orthoprosthetists) specialising in the care of people with polytrauma, burns, amputations or in need of respiratory physical therapy. We have also developed significant logistical capabilities to ensure that our deployment complies with WHO standards and does not depend on local resources, usually seriously disrupted during a crisis.
Depending on the context, HI's specialised emergency rehabilitation teams will be deployed in different ways: either we will work in an existing facility, such as a hospital, or as part of an emergency medical team; or we will set up a rehabilitation facility with our own team to provide back up for a hospital or health centre run by an EMT; or we will open a stand-alone rehabilitation facility to care for people affected by a crisis, (displaced peoples, refugees), at risk of complications and who do not have access to rehabilitation services.
Thanks to the continuous efforts of HI's emergency and rehabilitation teams and the support of WHO, we are now pre-qualified for accreditation as a specialised emergency rehabilitation team. The final accreditation phase will take place in 2025. This status will give us easier access to certain zones, enabling our teams to intervene more quickly and effectively in humanitarian crises.
At the beginning of October, HI specialists provided 14 rehabilitation professionals from different countries (USA, Canada, Belgium, Australia, etc.) with a week’s training and briefing on protection, safeguarding, security, emergency psychological assistance, ethics, etc., to optimise their capabilities in future humanitarian emergency responses.
HI teams recreated a humanitarian response setting to help participants gain a better understanding of the issues they would face in the field. Our mock-up camp included a rehabilitation area, a living area for the teams and a hospital for treating injured people.
Tented rehabilitation service providing patients with ambulatory care | © C. Clavel / HI
“The aim was for them to know, to recognise how they would react in an emergency context, when different parameters can disrupt their practice. We also wanted to familiarise them with intervention processes, equipment and teamwork in difficult conditions, under pressure, in sometimes tense security contexts,” explains Pauline Falipou, emergency rehabilitation specialist at HI.
Mock-up hospital providing emergency care to injured people | © C. Clavel / HI
For Anthony, who has been a physical therapist in Canada for over 13 years, this was his first immersion in a humanitarian crisis setting:
“The fact that this was a new experience for me made it all the more rewarding, and I felt supported by HI and my colleagues. What really struck me were the practical aspects of this kind of deployment, the ethical aspects, why and how we make certain choices... and lastly, the security aspect, because in this kind of context, you obviously have to stay safe to be able to continue providing assistance to people.”
Megan Mitchell, an American physical therapist, is regularly involved in emergency responses to climate disasters in the United States. Megan, who has already been on a short mission for HI, helped supervise the training of the new clinicians. She explains in video:
© HI
During this week of training, our teams worked with WHO representatives. Their role was to ensure that the protocols and operating procedures put in place by the HI teams complied with the EMT system’s quality criteria. Thanks to their very positive feedback, HI is now pre-qualified to join WHO's emergency medical teams.
At the next SIMEX, to be held in 2025, HI will have the chance to become accredited by WHO as a specialist emergency rehabilitation team.
A simulation exercise will then be organised every year, enabling new rehabilitation professionals to train up and join HI's human resources pool, ready to be deployed on short emergency missions for periods of up to three weeks.
> Find out the brochure on HI Rehabilitation specialised care teams
> If you are a physical therapist, occupational therapist or speech therapist, and are interested in joining HI’s human resources pool, get in touch! Sandrine Houx-Plantier: [email protected]
HI is an independent and impartial aid organisation working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict and disaster. We work alongside people with disabilities and vulnerable populations, taking action and bearing witness in order to respond to their essential needs, improve their living conditions and promote respect for their dignity and fundamental rights.
HI is an independent and impartial aid organisation working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict and disaster. We work alongside people with disabilities and vulnerable populations, taking action and bearing witness in order to respond to their essential needs, improve their living conditions and promote respect for their dignity and fundamental rights.