Celebrating National Preparedness Month

• Building capacity of BPHC as a whole to serve our city when emergencies impact health:
  • Conducting a drill with 36 BPHC Program Directors on critical decision-making and Incident Assessment and Planning for a local train crash scenario in a community setting, and holding an Open House for all staff focusing on how emergencies impact public health programming, staff, and most importantly, the clients we collectively serve.                                          
  • Collaborating with a diverse team of community and agency partners on an Extreme Temperature plan to protect our vulnerable populations and the city as a whole in the event of a weather-related emergency.                                                                                               
• Enhancing the preparedness and resilience of our families and communities, through our “Get Ready. Be Safe. Stay Healthy.” (RSH) program, including:
  • Offering three RSH Train-the-Trainer workshops this Fall to increase the number of residents that are prepared for emergency events, providing materials in multiple languages. Our first workshop was delivered to Community Health Center partners; the second is scheduled for October 23^rd and 24^th in Chelsea, MA is open for course registration.  
  • Providing RSH information and resources for specific populations at targeted events such as the Salvation Army’s “Pack Your Bag” event at the TD Garden, the annual Abilities Expo, and the recent State Street Preparedness event.

• The Mass League of Community Health Centers has been hosting a weekly drop-in session. There’s one session remaining on September 26, “Financial Planning for Emergencies.”
• MEMA is highlighting the importance of emergency preparedness with a campaign in line with FEMA’s weekly themes; this week’s theme is “Build an Emergency Kit.”
• The CDC’s campaign also has a different theme for each week; this week’s theme is “Policy and Partnerships,” in an acknowledgement that every response is local, and as such local policies and partnerships are the keys to readiness at the local level.  

• Read this report from the Environmental Protection Agency on mapping the vulnerability of human health to extreme heat in the U.S.
• Encourage the next generation of preparedness professionals by sharing this new graphic novel, developed by CDC and USDA, intended to educate youth audiences about variant flu and the real disease detective work conducted by public health experts.
• Learn about the man-made environmental disasters that followed Hurricane Harvey in this report from the Environmental Integrity Group.
• Watch this Active Shooter Emergency Action Plan Video created by DHS that describes the fundamental concepts of developing an Emergency Action Plan (EAP) for an active shooter scenario.
• Check out this ASPR TRACIE interview on coping with hospital water supply issues.
• Read this healthcare facility toolkit from American Academy of Pediatrics about family reunification following disasters.
• Check out this tip sheet from ASPR TRACIE for how healthcare facilities can assist families and loved ones after a mass casualty incident. 
• Use this Emergency Management Healthcare Environment Checklist, from The Joint Commission, to identify systems and processes to ensure full patient care delivery after an incident.