Answer:
Category:
Planning and Response
| Emergency preparedness planning was on the agenda for 64 representatives from a wide range of New York nonprofit organizations in March 2007. They spent a day at Fire Department of New York headquarters at a meeting titled “Making Your Organization Disaster Resistant.” The meeting was sponsored by We are All Brooklyn, by the Jewish Community Relations Council, and by John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Participants were introduced to key concepts of all-hazard emergency planning, such as vulnerability and risk assessments, protection strategies, scenario-based planning, and the need for drills and exercises. The training ended with a pandemic influenza exercise that divided attendees into four groups on the basis of their organizational functions: human services providers, health-related organizations, organizations providing services to seniors, and faith-based/community-based organizations. Using a CDC-produced mock newscast that reported the first case of pandemic influenza identified in the United States, the trainers instructed participants to act as the emergency planners for their organizations and to discuss the steps that they could use. HHS/CDC materials were used to assist the groups in identifying prevention measures (e.g., instructing people to wash their hands often and to consider alternatives to large gatherings). Lively discussions developed around identifying their agencies’ “mission-critical” functions—services that must be delivered even during a disaster—and securing the resources to accomplish these functions. Two other mock newscasts were aired (titled “It’s getting worse” and “It’s bad”), with lively discussions focusing on a variety of response issues (e.g., communication, command and control, personnel, and logistics). The groups identified common concerns, as well as concerns unique for their sectors. Some of the identified issues were easily solved by the group. Organizations that could continue to function by telephone and the Internet agreed to explore expanding their capacity to do so. Some agencies serving senior citizens in nearby neighborhoods spoke about developing official written agreement to maximize the services they could provide in an emergency. Other issues were harder to address. For example, participants were asked to determine how they would handle the task of distributing meals to frail, elderly citizens if their organizations were understaffed and one of their volunteers called to report being sick and in need of a meal. While scenarios like this are difficult to address, exercise participants knew that a plan must be developed to respond adequately in such situations. |
