Community Preparedness for Emergencies, WA

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NAME OF ORGANISATION Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) OVERVIEW The Community Preparedness for Emergencies, WA survey was conducted in October 2007 as a supplementary survey to the Monthly Population Survey. It collected information relating the impact a major emergency may have on households and the level of household preparedness for an emergency. Information was gathered about the characteristics of households that emergency authorities would need to know should an evacuation be required and how prepared householders were in the event of an emergency. PURPOSE The submission for this survey came from Fire and Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia (FESA). It was interested in finding out the level of preparedness of the WA community with respect to emergencies of a catastrophic nature. This category of emergency includes earthquake, tsunami, widespread floods, cyclone/tornado, biological / radiological attack and any other emergency that is large-scale and highly destructive in nature. Preparedness refers to a household having emergency / evacuation plans (where evacuation is to a location remote from the dwelling), resource readiness and methods of maintaining communication with relevant agencies / groups. Other agencies that provided input were: WA Police, and Dept Premier and Cabinet (DPC) Data will be analysed by : metropolitan / non-metropolitan region levels whether households have previously experienced a major emergency whether households have a dwelling exit plan selected age grouping household type tenure type dwelling type ability to understand English SCOPE The Community Preparedness for Emergencies Survey was conducted as a supplement to the ABS Monthly Population Survey (MPS) in October 2007. It was conducted on a subset of the full sample of private dwellings in WA that were included in the MPS. It covered all persons who were usual residents of private dwellings except: members of the Australian permanent defence forces; certain diplomatic personnel of overseas governments, customarily excluded from censuses and surveys; overseas residents in Australia; members of non-Australian defence forces (and their dependents) stationed in Australia; and persons living in sparsely settled areas of WA. Coverage rules were applied to ensure that each person was associated with only one dwelling, and hence had only one chance of selection in the survey. DATA DETAIL Conceptual framework not applicable Main outputs Data items in the tables are divided into two parts: i) Evacuation plan and selected household characteristics for the following categories: experienced any major emergencies assistance required to exit dwelling transport assistance requiring access to alternate accommodation pets needing evacuation provide unpaid care to non-household member have a role that may be called on to assist unable to understand English willingness to evacuate ii) Emergency preparedness of the household relating to: exit plan from dwelling agreed meeting place availability of stored drinking water availability of food that does not need cooking or refrigeration access to a portable radio with working batteries access to mobile phones access to landline telephone internet access first aid qualification household with members on long term medication keeping of medication in one location for households with members on long-term medication keeping of important documents together having a torch for ready use. The data tables are by: Perth metropolitan region WA non-metropolitan region experience in major emergency selected age group household type tenure type dwelling type exit plan [for part (i) data items] ability to understand English [for part (ii) data items] Classifications Relevant ABS, National and/or International classifications and standards will be used. Where these are not available, the survey will aim for consistency with other ABS surveys. Other concepts (summary) Not applicable GEOGRAPHIC DETAIL Western Australia Major Statistical Region Statistical Region Comments and/or Other Regions COLLECTION FREQUENCY Once Only Frequency comments COLLECTION HISTORY State supplementary survey topics vary each year. The Community Preparedness for Emergencies, WA 2007 survey is a new one-off survey. A separate survey but on the same topic was conducted in NSW in 2003 (Community Preparedness for Emergencies, New South Wales, October 2003, cat. no. 4818.1). DATA AVAILABILITY Yes Data availability comments Data will be available in the publication 'Community Preparedness for Emergencies, WA, Oct 2007' (ABS Cat No. 4818.5). Additional data will be available on request as a chargeable service. DATE OF LAST UPDATE FOR THIS DOCUMENT 22/04/2008 12:46 PM Document Selection These documents will be presented in a new window.