When you think about how to create a uniform sense of safety and security to protect our nation's health in times of disaster, you really need to look at capabilities at the local level. The things local and state health departments do every single day to make our lives healthier, safer and better also are fundamental to our national health security. Local and state health departments often are the first to detect that “something's going on” and are on the front lines of the fight against public health threats.
Health departments’ every day activities can help mitigate potential public health emergencies. If someone tried to poison a community’s food system, local food safety inspections should be able to discover those threats quickly through the mechanisms that the community uses every day to inspect foods and restaurants.
A lot of health departments sponsor flu vaccination clinics to protect health in their communities ahead of the flu season. Doing so becomes muscle memory and provides a foundation to meet their community’s needs during a mass vaccination incident.
Local health departments also conduct routine health assessments to identify health issues in their communities. Those assessments can help a community better respond to the health needs of their residents during disasters. For instance, a local health official can identify through a standard health assessment that a percentage of the community is vulnerable because of particular health issues and where they live. This knowledge allows local health departments to predict and plan for vulnerable populations’ needs during a disaster.
September 11 crystallized the need for our nation’s public health and healthcare sector to identify ways to protect our nation during public health emergencies. To boost their ability to address community health needs in the face of declining resources, local and state public health departments now routinely reach out to partners in the private sector, nonprofit organizations and others to create a whole-of-community approach to public health. They recognize that working with local organizations can be mutually beneficial for emergency planning, response and post-disaster recovery.
Your community may have additional resources and volunteer-based organizations, including the American Red Cross, or visiting nurse services. There’s the Medical Reserve Corps with about 180,000 volunteers throughout the country. They can support local health departments by promoting everyday community health activities and by serving as part of the response to disasters.
Local health departments also are pulling in non-traditional partners, like HAM radio operators. Radio is one of the most resilient forms of communication technology and HAM radio operators have helped governmental agencies respond to disasters. While a community organization’s primary focus may not be on disasters, they may be willing adapt their own services and procedures to ensure communities are taken care of during disasters.
These organizations know the segments of the community their volunteers serve, and they help local health departments connect with those community members and provide support to public health.
I hope state and local health departments also take advantage of resources available through ASPR. For example, the Hospital Preparedness Program provides some funding and excellent guidance to build and maintain health care coalitions supporting individual medical needs and public health. There’s also emPOWER to aid health officials and community organizations in planning for vulnerable populations’ needs, and TRACIE for sharing information and best practices among health care and public health entities and finding experts for technical assistance 24/7/365. Knowing more about the medical responders and supplies available from the National Disaster Medical System for health care during a disaster can be crucial in local and state emergency planning, too.
If you don’t know your area’s regional emergency coordinator, reach out. These experts can assist in planning, training, responding and recovering from the health consequences of public health emergencies.
ASPR’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) periodically arranges opportunities to discuss what’s in the medical countermeasures pipeline so health departments can include this information in response plans. Health officials also can provide valuable information to BARDA to help determine what form medical countermeasures should take to ensure that when medications or vaccines get to the state and local level, they can be efficiently and effectively dispensed and used.
If you aren’t sure what resources the federal government offers to help with public health emergency response and recovery, check out the HHS Response and Recovery Resources Compendium.
Strengthening public health is a hard job and even the largest health departments are challenged to respond to the needs of the millions of people who make up their local population. In ASPR, we’re working to help local and state public health departments and health care systems across the country build on their existing capabilities to protect health and save lives when disaster strikes.
