Author: Kevin Horahan, J.D., M.P.H., NRP, Senior Policy Analyst, Office of Policy and Planning, HHS ASPR
College students begin returning to campus soon while teachers in K-12 prepare their classrooms for incoming students. If you work in public health or emergency management, there’s something you can do to make a difference for the staff, students, and community as the school year gets underway: share three new guides for schools, institutions of higher education, and houses of worship –
Why share the guides? Because, when done right, emergency planning helps protect kids and communities. The guides are based on common principles used across the emergency planning community and will help these organizations address the five mission areas described in the National Preparedness Goal: prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery.
The team that developed the guides – experts with backgrounds in education, emergency management, law enforcement and legal issues, behavioral health, and emergency medical services –walk school officials and congregation leaders through the entire process from forming a planning team; identifying threats and assessing risks; and developing, reviewing, and implementing a plan. Also, so plans don’t sit on a shelf waiting for a bad day, the guides provide information about training and exercises, which in turns helps everyone involved understand and practice their roles to protect the people around them during a crisis.
Although some schools and houses of worship had plans, often they were created without the benefit of formal, joint guidance from the critical federal agencies on emergency planning. For example, some plans assumed that HIPAA doesn’t allow teachers, ministers, or health care providers to alert the police if a student, congregation member, or patient behaves in a threatening way. This misinformation is corrected in the guides’ information sharing section with explanations of what professionals can and can’t do under HIPAA and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and why.
The three guides grew out of the president’s plan to prevent gun violence, a report called Now Is the Time which was released soon after the Newtown, Conn., school shootings. The report was followed by a national conference at the White House on mental health. HHS and the Dept. of Education led the conversation about expanding mental health coverage, funding for teachers and others to help train them to recognize signs of mental illness, improving the mental health services available for veterans and through Medicaid, and much more.
Additionally, ASPR and our sister agency, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, worked to ensure that Psychological First Aid components were included in the guides, along with information about public health and medical services, so planners have quick access to this information and can incorporate it into their plans.
Additionally, ASPR and our sister agency, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, worked to ensure that Psychological First Aid components were included in the guides, along with information about public health and medical services, so planners have quick access to this information and can incorporate it into their plans.
And if you’ve checked out the guides, share your thoughts with others in the comment section of this blog.
