USPHS Scientific & Training Symposium: SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM AGENDA
11:00
a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Track 4: Strategies for Improving Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response
Coconino Room, Tucson Convention Center
Community Preparedness and Resiliency
CAPT Juliana Sadovich, RN, BSN, MSN, PhD, USPHS, Director, Emergency Management and Medical Response Integration Division, Office of Medical Readiness
Presentation (pps, 591 KB)
This presentation will review examples of current disaster planning methodologies; introduce an innovative framework for building community preparedness through collaborative resilience initiatives; and identify steps that can be used by community leaders and stakeholders to develop improved disaster preparedness planning processes.
At the end of the session, participants will be able to:
• Define resiliency
• Discuss limitations of current planning methodologies
• Describe how collaborative resilience initiatives can be used to improve preparedness
11:30
a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Track 4: Strategies for Improving Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response
Coconino Room, Tucson Convention Center
Tribal Emergency and Public Health Preparedness
WF Peate, MD, MPH, Associate Professor. College of Medicine, University of Arizona
Presentation (pps, 3.72 MB)
This presentation will examine the unique challenges involved in emergency and public health preparedness in a tribal environment. Arizona’s Native American communities and surrounding areas have been challenged by the loss of 800,000 acres from wild land fires, floods from the Colorado River, chemical tank truck spills, and infectious diseases such as West Nile Virus.
This session will discuss a training program designed to ensure that tribes were adequately trained to implement coordinated response plans for a range of potential public health emergencies. Three training modules were provided in five regional 1 ½ day sessions in close cooperation with the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS), Office of Public Health and Emergency Preparedness Response (OPHEPR), its Native American Liaison and tribal personnel. Cultural competency (including public prayer by an elder for “protection of our people” during the training), respect for tribal sovereignty, solicitation of historic examples of indigenous peoples’ preparedness, and incorporation of tribal community networks were essential to the success of this program.
At the end of the session, participants will be able to:
• Discuss key aspects of the unique environment of tribal emergency preparedness, including cultural competency, respect for tribal sovereignty, and incorporation of tribal community networks
• Describe three methods that can be used to enhance tribal, non-tribal, and inter-agency communication and collaboration on preparedness.
02:45
p.m. – 03:45 p.m. Track 4: Strategies for Improving Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response
Coconino Room, Tucson Convention Center
The Public Health Role in Mass Fatality Management
Mona Anand, MPH, Research Specialist, University of Arizona’s Center for Public Health Preparedness
Presentation (pps, 2.03 MB)
This presentation will provide an overview of the possible roles and responsibilities that public health professionals will be called upon to fulfill related to mass fatality management in the event of a pandemic influenza event.
The session will discuss how public health providers may be requested to assist state and local jurisdictions in providing victim identification and mortuary services; establishing temporary morgue facilities; performing victim identification by fingerprint, forensic dental, and/or forensic pathology and/or anthropology methods; and participating in the processing, preparation, and disposition of remains. Public health officials also may become involved in human remains recovery and with assisting healthcare facilities with handing large numbers of patient remains. The presenter will take an in-depth look at the potential roles and the challenges they pose.
At the end of the session, participants will be able to:
• Describe the role of public health officials during a pandemic influenza event as it relates to mass fatality management
• Discuss the unique challenges a pandemic influenza incident poses for mass fatalities management
04:00
p.m. – 05:00 p.m. Track 4: Strategies for Improving Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response
Coconino Room, Tucson Convention Center
Risk Communication Considerations to Facilitate Mass Screenings
LCDR Robert Emery, USPHS, Assistant Vice President for Safety, Health, Environment & Risk Management, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Associate Professor of Occupational Health at the University of Texas School of Public Health
pps (21.48 MB) | pdf (1.47 MB)
This presentation will examine how the use of pre-established risk communication templates could serve to enhance the effectiveness of disaster response efforts. The session will look at risk communication lessons learned during a field training exercise involving the screening of large groups of individuals for possible contamination with radioactive material. The exercise revealed that while participants were generally attentive to the proper use of protective equipment and detectors, they tended to overlook important basic risk communications aspects.
Based on this experience, a set of risk communications templates were developed that focused on the issues likely to be encountered in a mass screening event. The points included issues such as the importance of remaining calm, steps for minimizing possible intake or uptake, considerations for those exhibiting acute injuries, expected screening wait times, the process to be followed; the information to be collected, the process to be undertaken for those exhibiting contamination, and the symptoms to watch for after departure.
At the end of the session, participants will be able to:
• Discuss the importance of effective risk communications during disaster response
• Describe the types of events that might involve mass population screening for radioactive material
• List three key risk communication points that should be considered during such events