The Üsküdar University Vocational School of Health Services Days, held with the theme of "Emergency and Disaster: Earthquake," took place at the Üsküdar University Çarşı Campus.
Speaking at the event attended by experts in their fields, Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan said, "If you cannot foresee and manage a risk in advance, you will fail during a crisis and respond late to many things." Prof. Dr. Tarhan stated that as a university, young people could develop projects with artificial intelligence regarding disasters, adding, "Those who manage big data are currently trying to dominate the world. A project can also be written in cooperation with AFAD."
Referring to the identity confusion experienced in the last earthquake, Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Muhsin Konuk said, "Unfortunately, we have not created the DNA fingerprints of our people and have not been able to place them on the chips of our identity cards. I think this is one of our biggest shortcomings."
The Üsküdar University Vocational School of Health Services Days, themed "Emergency and Disaster: Earthquake," were held.
The opening speeches of the program were delivered by SHMYO Director Prof. Dr. Mesut Karahan, Istanbul Provincial Disaster and Emergency Manager Ercan Akar, Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Muhsin Konuk, and Founding Rector and Chairman of the Board of Governors Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan. The first presentation of the opening session, titled "Disaster Management," was given by Disaster Expert Prof. Dr. Mikdat Kadıoğlu.
"Our cultural responses negatively affect us in disaster situations"
Üsküdar University Founding Rector and Chairman of the Board of Governors, Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, stated that our cultural responses play an important role in our country's crisis management process, saying, "We have cultural responses, and these negatively affect us in disaster situations. Our cultural habits show that we are successful in managing crises during disasters, but we cannot say that we are successful in preparing for crises. Because risk management is required before crisis preparedness. That is, if you cannot foresee and manage a risk in advance, you will fail during a crisis and respond late to many things."
"If risk management is done during a crisis, action is taken much faster"
Emphasizing the importance of defining the crisis and taking measurements during crisis moments, Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan reminded that when the February 6th earthquake occurred, even AFAD officials in that region were trapped under the earthquake, everyone acted with good intentions to help randomly, and many problems were experienced.
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan pointed out the importance of conducting drills and evaluating the results before a crisis, saying, "If risk management is done during such a crisis, action is taken much faster, and precautions are taken with fewer casualties."
"There is risk management in suicides too"
Stating that there are scales related to risk management in suicides as well, Prof. Dr. Tarhan said, "Can this person commit suicide? Is there a risk or not? Is there a suicidal intent? Is there a suicide plan? Is there a suicidal thought? Has there been a suicide attempt in the past? We always measure these. Then we determine that person's risk and try to prevent it. If you cannot determine this, it can result in an unexpected, bad outcome. This applies to all crises. It exists in all professions. I wanted to emphasize this especially when talking about disasters."
"A project can be written in cooperation with AFAD"
Prof. Dr. Tarhan stated that as a university, young people could develop projects with artificial intelligence regarding disasters, adding, "Those who manage big data are currently trying to dominate the world. Social mobility, economic mobility, monetary mobility are all being attempted through big data. A project can be written in cooperation with AFAD. Our university has computer engineering, software engineering. If AFAD supports such a project, we can prepare a project with the energy of young people, the experience of faculty members, and AFAD's accumulated knowledge."
Prof. Dr. Tarhan also drew attention to the importance of using reason in crisis situations, saying, "In a crisis, we will use our reason and take our precautions in advance. I hope good projects emerge from the meeting."
Prof. Dr. Muhsin Konuk: "The genetic profile of all our people should be embedded in chips"
Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Muhsin Konuk, in his speech, reminded that one of the most important duties of universities is to inform society, stating, "As a nation, unfortunately, we have certain behavioral patterns in our social genetics. One of these behavioral patterns is that, for example, if a traffic light is to be placed somewhere, it only occurs to us to place one after several deaths have occurred in that area. This country is an earthquake country. Earthquakes have claimed many lives in this country. However, we only begin to make preparations related to a disaster after it has happened. Whereas, we should have done these things earlier."
Prof. Dr. Konuk also referred to the identity confusion experienced in the last earthquake, saying, "Unfortunately, we have not created the DNA fingerprints of our people and have not been able to place them on the chips of our identity cards. I think this is one of our biggest shortcomings. Because in the last disaster we experienced, we saw that, unfortunately, we could not perform identity screenings of people."
Noting that a Turkish human genome project was carried out and there is only a one-thousandth difference in the genetic structure of all humanity, Prof. Dr. Konuk said, "However, instead of that project, a project is needed to prepare the genetic profile, the DNA fingerprint, of all our people and embed it in the chips on our identity cards. This is one of our most important shortcomings."
Prof. Dr. Mesut Karahan: "We adopted a 3-pillar system in education"
SHMYO Director Prof. Dr. Mesut Karahan said in his speech, "We are Turkey's most comprehensive Vocational School of Health Services, with a total of 59 programs and over 7,000 students. We have adopted a three-pillar system in our education system. The first is the theory of vocational courses, the second is applying everything we learn in theory in the laboratory, and the third pillar is vocational training or summer internship."
Prof. Dr. Mesut Karahan stated that thousands of our people were lost in the February 6th earthquake, saying, "As a school, we decided that our theme from now on should be emergency, disaster, and earthquake."
Ercan Akar: "AFAD volunteers are very valuable to us"
Speaking at the opening of the meeting, Istanbul Provincial Disaster and Emergency Manager Ercan Akar stated that after the establishment of the AFAD Presidency, there was a transition from national-level crisis management to integrated disaster management, adding, "Our plans are prepared by our Provincial Disaster Directorates. In our province, within the scope of pre-disaster risk reduction activities, the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Plan, which defines what needs to be done before a disaster and who is responsible, came into force at the end of 2021 with the approval of our governorship."
Akar said, "As Istanbul AFAD, our disaster awareness training activities for individuals and families continue. To date, training has been provided to 13 million people. As you all know, AFAD volunteers are very valuable to us. Currently, we have 338,823 AFAD volunteers."
Prof. Dr. Mikdat Kadıoğlu: "Disaster management is anticipating the unexpected, managing the worst"
Disaster Expert Prof. Dr. Mikdat Kadıoğlu, in his presentation titled "Disaster Management," noted that disaster management, emergency management, and incident management are three different things, saying, "Disaster management is something unexpected, not happening every day. This is like anticipating the unexpected for us. It's an event that people don't encounter very often in life, something that cannot be learned by trial and error. Disaster management is anticipating the unexpected, managing the worst."
Prof. Dr. Mikdat Kadıoğlu stated that disaster management is a new scientific field in Turkey, saying, "Everyone defines disaster management according to their own understanding. It's like the blind men describing an elephant. Perhaps this is a problem for Turkey. We have a disaster management system like the blind men describing an elephant."
Prof. Dr. Mikdat Kadıoğlu also pointed out the lack of consensus in language and ideas on this matter, saying, "A disaster is something that happens outside and affects both the outside and the inside. Disaster management is a two-dimensional, very comprehensive, and multidisciplinary subject."
Event attended by experts in their fields concluded
At the symposium, Haldun Ömer Seçilmiş, Head of the Istanbul Branch of the Chamber of Geological Engineers, delivered a presentation on "Turkey and Seismicity"; Mehmet Mülayim, Kızılay Logistics Disaster and Humanitarian Aid Operations Director, on "Logistics in Disasters"; Emine Erdem, Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) and Boğaziçi University Instructor, on "Search and Rescue and YOTA Study (Non-Structural Hazard Mitigation)"; and from Üsküdar University, Prof. Dr. Haydar Sur on "Disaster Epidemiology" and Clinical Psychologist Görkem Altıntaş on "Psychological Support in Disasters."