Note: While most of my blogs so far this month have been about individual preparedness, community preparedness is equally important.
So today I profile a valuable resource for agencies, organizations, and colleges & universities that must prepare for public health emergencies.
You can follow the month long National Preparedness Month Campaign on Twitter by searching the #NPM10 hash tag.
# 4886
Since this is National Preparedness Month I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out the vast resources available on CIDRAP’s Promising Practices Website.
If you are interested in starting a community preparedness or response program - or one for a college or university - rather than re-inventing the wheel, a visit to this website could save you and your organization a lot of time, money, and aggravation.
The website welcome describes the site this way:
Promising Practices offers you more than 330 tools, practices, and strategies that have been used by public health and others to prepare or respond to an influenza pandemic. Materials represent work from 45 US states, including more than 65 cities and counties and now, colleges and universities.
The Promising Practices collection has just expanded to include higher education, in cooperation with the universities that compose the Big 10+2, and with support from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO). The "Higher Ed" category already has more than 30 practices for colleges and universities to use, and collection is ongoing from all colleges and universities (see press release).
Created before the novel H1N1 influenza pandemic to enhance preparedness, Promising Practices now also features useful response activities. State and local health departments, as well as colleges and universities, are sharing their successes. By highlighting this quality work, Promising Practices aims to help conserve resources and strengthen preparedness and response activities.
You may use materials on this site right away. Please credit the agencies whose work you adapt, and check practices for other conditions of use.
A small sampling of some recently posted resources includes:
Partnerships Introduce Students to Emergency Response (OH)
In spring 2009, at the start of the H1N1 influenza pandemic, an H1N1 Committee was formed at the University of Toledo (UT) in Ohio. Committee members quickly recognized two valuable... >> More
Disaster Mental Health Intervention Field Guide (IN)
Updated August 2010 The Field Guide is a compendium of mental health tools that describes the range of behavioral health responses to disaster and offers suggestions on how to... >> More
SurveyMonkey Used for Campus Vaccine Registration (MI)
Conducting mass H1N1 vaccination at Michigan State University (MSU)-one of the Big 10 universities-required thoughtful planning. A population of approximately 47,000 students, an... >> More
H1N1 Essential Personnel Recommendation (IN)
In December 2008, before the first case of H1N1 pandemic influenza was discovered, Purdue University drafted a plan that outlines how essential and non-essential employees would access... >> More
Options-Based Planning Allows Flexible H1N1 Response (OH)
The Ohio State University (OSU) developed an "options-based" pandemic plan that allowed staff to coordinate H1N1 response in a flexible and creative manner. OSU began developing its... >> More
Nursing Students Provide Majority of Vaccine Given on Campus (PA)
Savvy planning and resource use helped Pennsylvania State University (PSU) make the best of the challenge of holding mass vaccination clinics. A key part of PSU's success was including... >> More
With more than 320 resources available (and growing), this site is well worth visiting often.
But fair warning . . . pack a lunch.
There’s so much to see, you’ll probably be there awhile.
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