Community Preparedness

Capability 1: Community Preparedness

Definition: Community preparedness is the ability of communities to prepare for, withstand, and recover — in both the short and long terms — from public health incidents. By engaging and coordinating with emergency management, healthcare organizations (private and community-based), mental/behavioral health providers, community and faith-based partners, state, local, and territorial, public health’s role in community preparedness is to do the following:

Support the development of public health, medical, and mental/behavioral health systems that support recovery
Participate in awareness training with community and faith-based partners on how to prevent, respond to, and recover from public health incidents
Promote awareness of and access to medical and mental/behavioral health resources that help protect the community’s health and address the functional needs (i.e., communication, medical care, independence, supervision, transportation) of at-risk individuals
Engage public and private organizations in preparedness activities that represent the functional needs of at-risk individuals as well as the cultural and socio-economic, demographic components of the community
Identify those populations that may be at higher risk for adverse health outcomes
Receive and/or integrate the health needs of populations who have been displaced due to incidents that have occurred in their own or distant communities (e.g., improvised nuclear device or hurricane)

Functions and Associated Performance Measures:
This capability consists of the ability to perform the functions listed below. At present there are no CDC-defined performance measures for these functions.

Function 1: Determine risks to the health of the jurisdiction
Function 2: Build community partnerships to support health preparedness
Function 3: Engage with community organizations to foster public health, medical, and mental/behavioral health social networks
Function 4: Coordinate training or guidance to ensure community engagement in preparedness efforts

Community Preparedness: Online Trainings

Community Partnering: A Risk Assessment & Emergency Operations Planning Scenario [1]

This course, developed by the Upper Midwest Preparedness and Emergency Response Learning Center, provides guidance on the fundamentals of community-based planning, from contributing to a risk assessment to developing emergency operations plans (EOP) and engaging the whole community in addressing all risks and hazards. The course is intended for local public health administrators and local county emergency managers. Time estimated to complete is 1 hour.

Ready or Not? A Family Preparedness Scenario [2]

This interactive, scenario-based course, developed by the Upper Midwest Preparedness and Emergency Response Learning Center, provides training in emergency preparedness for the families of first responders, focusing on protective actions families can take prior to a disaster. The course is intended for local public health administrators and local county emergency managers and takes 50 minutes or less to complete.

Emergency Planning for Local Public Health [3]

This course from the Harvard PERLC provides a foundation for local public health practitioners in emergency planning principles, and the integration of public health into the emergency planning process. This course has been created for local public health workers, and others who are interested in public health emergency response. It will introduce public health emergency planning issues, and describe public health roles and responsibilities during a disaster. Learning objectives will help to build skills so that the public health worker can ‘contribute expertise to the development of emergency plans which is competency 3.2 under Plan and Improve Practice. Course is estimated to take 50 minutes to complete.

Cultural Competency for Community Management of Special Needs Patients in Disaster [4]

This 4-contact-hour course was developed by the South Central Public Health Partnership. Acquiring awareness, skills and proficiency in cultural competency has become a critical element in enabling people, governments and institutions to deal with crises in a world with less homogeneity but greater diversity. The talents and insight of cultural competency can transform vulnerabilities in societal self-awareness and coordination into strengths of capability for planning and intervention.

Community Preparedness: Resources

Risk Assessment Tools: for Local Public Health [5] and Healthcare [6]
The Risk Assessment tools were developed in partnership between the Upper Midwest PERLC and the Iowa Department of Public Health. Iowa Local Public Health Agencies and Healthcare organizations completing their mandatory risk assessment should access the tool with IDPH's instructions. Others can access a general version of the tool in the LMS.

Strengthening Emergency Response through a Healthcare Coalition Toolkit [7]
This Advanced Practice Center toolkit, developed by Public Health-Seattle & King County with support from NACCHO, CDC, ASPR, and Homeland Security, can be used as a guide to support the development of a healthcare coalition, or as a topic-specific reference to complement existing health response planning in a community. It is designed as a framework, not a substitute, for the collaborative planning process that each health jurisdiction must undertake. This Toolkit provides a planning framework, tools and templates.

Meeting the Needs of Vulnerable Populations: Equity in Emergency Response [8]
The goal of this web-based toolkit, developed by the Seattle and King County Public Health Advanced Practice Center, is to provide tools and information to support local health departments (LHD) in working collaboratively with community partners to connect and communicate so that no one group is disproportionately affected in an emergency.

FEMA Continuity Planning Templates [9]
An organization’s continuity of operations plan documents the overarching strategy, policies, and procedures required to support its headquarters continuity of operations program. As the DHS entity for coordinating the Executive Branch continuity of operations program, National Continuity Programs (NCP) has developed detailed planning guidance and plan templates to help other federal and non-federal entities in their continuity planning.

Public Health Mutual Aid Agreements - A Menu of Suggested Provisions [10]
Developed by the CDC's Public Health Law Program, this document presents selected model memorandums of understanding to enhance coordination of preparedness across sectors.

Community Preparedness: Drills & Exercises

Exercise Design with HSEEP [11]
This 3-day workshop provides participants an opportunity to review their Homeland Security Strategy and Multi-year Exercise Plan. The Exercise Planning Workshops (EPW) facilitate the evaluation of, and updates to, existing emergency plans. This face-to-face training is offered periodically by Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

Moving Beyond HSEEP, Creating Well-Functioning Teams for Preparedness Response [12]
University of Minnesota Centers for Public Health Education and Outreach developed this comprehensive train-the-trainer package to be used by those who educate and conduct exercises involving public health department staff with emergency response roles. The intent of this training package is to improve team communications, functionality, efficiency and effectiveness by teaching and giving participants opportunities to practice key communication strategies and tools. It provides participants with basic knowledge about high reliability teams and organizations, as well as step-by-step functional exercise guidelines.

This tool can be used as initial training for staff with new response roles, new to the department, or as a refresher training. The package includes instructor materials (training content and script, instructor manual), student materials, debrief facilitation guidance, exercise packet, and pre- and post-training assessments. The training takes approximately 60-90 minutes to deliver and can be delivered in a classroom setting or via distance learning methods.

Public Health Emergency Exercise Toolkit: Planning, Designing, Conducting, and Evaluating Local Public Health Emergency Exercises [13]
This toolkit, from the Columbia University School of Nursing, is intended to guide local public health agency staff in (1) developing, implementing, and evaluating emergency drills and exercises, and (2) facilitating the public health aspects of larger, multiagency emergency exercise events. The toolkit provides essential guidance including templates, checklists, and forms to assist with every stage of the exercise process. Emphasis is on identification of objectives during the planning phase, a critical step for ensuring a meaningful postexercise evaluation. The information in this document is consistent with the approaches recommended by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Domestic Preparedness (ODP) and the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP).