New educational pre-disaster video developed for child daycare providers

Children present with unique needs, particularly in a disaster. One challenge is that children may be completely dependent on adults for their care. With this in mind, and considering the physical, psychological and legal needs of children during and after a disaster, a group of stakeholders devised the outline for an educational pre-disaster video for child daycare providers in Los Angeles County using the Delphi technique. The ultimate goal of the Delphi technique is to achieve an unbiased consensus among experts.

Save the Children Fund (Save the Children), Children's Hospital Los Angeles, a free standing level 1 pediatric trauma center, and the Los Angeles Children in Disasters Working Group (LA CID Working Group) collaborated to provide daycare providers a rubric for creating their own disaster plans.

The end result was the development of a 20-minute video containing key points in disaster planning for the daycare provider.

According to the corresponding author Dr. Rita Burke, "Planning for a disaster can be overwhelming, especially for day care providers who are charged with caring for our children. The Los Angeles Children in Disasters Working Group, identified the need and together with Children's Hospital Los Angeles and Save the Children, aimed to create a short video which helps day care providers think about the disaster planning process in a more manageable way. Our overarching goal in creating the video is to continue to build resilience in our nation for our children and future generations."