1. Capability Cliff Notes Series PHEP Capability 1—Community Preparedness
What Is It And How Will We Measure It?

2. Learning Objectives Become familiar with Capability Functions
Become familiar with Tasks that complete the Functions
Understand how these Functions and Tasks are measured or may be measured in the future (Performance Measures)

3. Community Preparedness
Community preparedness is the ability of communities to prepare for, withstand, and recover — in both the short and long terms — from public health incidents. (defined by CDC)
How can health departments help their communities to achieve preparedness? What goes into making communities ready for disasters?

4. Community Preparedness Functions
How Can Health Departments Help Prepare Communities for Disasters?
Determine risks to the health of the jurisdiction
Build community partnerships to support health preparedness
Engage with community organizations to foster public health, medical, and mental/behavioral health social networks
Coordinate training or guidance to ensure community engagement in preparedness efforts

5. Capabilities and Measures Resources
The performance measure for this capability is an evaluation tool that can be found at the following link:

6. Function 1: Determine Risks to Health of the Jurisdiction
Tasks: What things can health departments do to determine the risks to the health of their jurisdictions?
Use jurisdictional risk assessment to identify, with emergency management and community and faith-based partners, the public health, medical, and mental/behavioral health services for which the jurisdiction needs to have access to mitigate identified disaster health risks.
This assessment can come from emergency management or other partners. It does not have to be solely created by public health.
A past assessment is valid if it has been done within the past three (3) years.
Use a JRA to identify what services currently exist in the community to address disaster health risks.

7. Task Elements
There are elements that health departments should keep in mind to address different aspects of the tasks:
Identification of vulnerable populations
Jurisdictional risk assessment related to public health, medical, and mental/behavioral health
Health department assistance with assurance of health services
MOUs and agreements with partners to provide access to medical and mental/behavioral health services
Person(s) with expertise in GIS to assist in locating/mapping at-risk populations

8. Function 2: Build community partnerships for health preparedness
Tasks: What things can health departments do to identify community partnerships?
Identify community sector groups to be engaged for partnership based upon the jurisdictional risk assessment.
Create and implement strategies for ongoing engagement with community partners who may be able to provide services to mitigate identified public health threats or incidents (concept of “strategic advisory council” or joint collaborative).
Utilize community and faith-based partnerships as well as collaborations with any agencies primarily responsible for providing direct health-related services to help assure the community’s ability to deliver public health, medical, and mental/behavioral health services in both short and long term settings during and after an incident.
Utilize a continuous quality improvement process to incorporate feedback from community and faith-based partners into jurisdictional emergency operations plans.
Identify community leaders that can act as trusted spokespersons to deliver public health messages.

9. Task Elements
There are elements that health departments should keep in mind to address different aspects of the tasks:
Participation in existing or new partnerships representing the listed community sectors
Protocol to encourage or promote medical personnel to register and participate with MRC or ESAR-VHP
Documentation of community and faith-based partners' roles and responsibility
Public Health hazard policy and plan discussion with community partners
Support for community health services during multiple types of hazard scenarios
Guidance to partners to support their emergency operations plans/response operations
Mid-level public health staff demonstration of 'Plan for and improve practice’ domain

10. Function 3: Engage With Community Organizations Identified
Tasks: What things can health departments do to engage community partners after identifying them?
Ensure that community constituency groups understand how to connect to public health to participate in public health and community partner preparedness efforts.
Ensure that public health, medical, and mental/behavioral health service agencies that provide essential health services to the community are connected to jurisdictional public health preparedness plans and efforts.
Create jurisdictional networks (e.g., local businesses, community and faith-based organizations, ethnic radio/media, and, if used by the jurisdiction, social networking sites) for public health, medical, and mental/behavioral health information dissemination before, during, and after the incident.

11. Task Elements
There are elements that health departments should keep in mind to address different aspects of the tasks:
Community engagement in problem solving strategy sessions
Ensure health services are culturally and socially competent

12. Function 4: Coordinate training or guidance to ensure community engagement in preparedness efforts
Tasks: What things can health departments do to train or provide guidance to community partners in preparedness?
Integrate information on resilience, specifically the need for community-derived approaches to provide public health, medical, and mental/behavioral health services during and after an incident, into existing training and educational programs related to crisis and disaster preparedness and response.
Promote training to community partners that may have a supporting role to public health, medical, and mental/behavioral health sectors (e.g., education, child care, juvenile justice, child welfare, and congregate childcare settings).
Provide guidance to community partners, particularly groups representing the functional needs of at-risk populations, to assist them in educating their own groups regarding plans for addressing preparedness for and recovery from identified risks, and for access to health services regarding the incident.

13. Task Elements
There are elements that health departments should keep in mind to address different aspects of the tasks:
Public health approaches to address children's medical and mental/behavioral health needs
Building and sustaining volunteer opportunities for community residents
Disaster education and training programs for responders, volunteers, and community residents
Access to Medical Reserve Corps, coordination with Community Emergency Response Teams/Citizen Corps

14. Questions? Please contact: Rachel Coles Program Evaluator--CDPHE