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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Andrew C. Rucks, PhD, W. Jack Duncan, PhD, Peter M. Ginter, PhD, Lisa C. McCormick, MPH, Martha S. Wingate, DrPH, and Maziar Abdolrasulnia, MPH, MBA. Health Care Organization and Policy, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health, RPHB 330, 1530 3rd Avenue South, Birmingham, AL 35294-0022, (205) 975-8967, arucks@uab.edu

In preparing and responding to emergencies and disasters the public expects many organizations to cooperate and coordinate as they exercise their capabilities and resources. Mobilizing community partnerships to identify and solve health problems is one of the 10 Essential Public Health Services. Leading the disaster planning and response effort of multiple government and private-sector organizations adds a new dimension to public health. In addition, public health's role will vary with the type of disaster or emergency. While planning for and responding to disasters, public health must maintain its capability to conduct its routine, non-emergency activities of assessment, policy development, and assurance activities. The patchwork of methods and disciplines that constitutes disaster management presents a particular challenge to public health. Therefore the establishment, organization, and leadership of disaster response networks are clearly important public health functions. With the increased number and consequences of large-scale disasters, it is critical that public health departments prioritize the types of disaster response networks that should be established, organize these networks, clearly delineate network membership, and define participants' roles and relationships by network type. This paper examines the nature of large-scale disasters and proposes a methodology for public health departments' prioritization of response network development, network organization, and defining participants' roles within the network. Further, the paper presents a map of overlapping response networks by disaster type showing the agencies and private sector organizations involved.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. Identify and order (prioritize) organizations to be included in a preparedness network responding to an emergency or disaster,
• 2. Effectively organize a network of public and private organizations to respond to an emergency or disaster, and
• 3. Establish the criteria by which members are recruited and admitted to a network of organizations responding to an emergency or disaster.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered