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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

John Steen, John Steen & Associates, Principal, 18254 Southwood Drive, Meadville, PA 16335, 814-333-3742, jwsteen@expedient.net

It is a sociological truism that, “If people perceive a situation as real, it is real in its consequences.” The applicability of this truism to emergency preparedness planning implies that it is insufficient for government agencies and public institutions to plan for communities, they must plan with them. Officials must invest in how communities understand and perceive emergencies and their containment if they are to prepare communities for them. This requires that community stakeholders and citizen groups be brought into engagements and public forums in which information is shared reciprocally and health education and alliance building occurs. The MAPP process familiar to local and state health departments furnishes a comprehensive model for a reciprocal learning process. If carried out in good faith, such processes can create trust in the community, and greater cooperation with the officials responsible for the community's safety.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will learn how building alliances is crucial in such planning, and how community engagement can build them.
• Participants will learn how processes of community engagement such as MAPP may be of value in reciprocal information sharing between public health / emergency leaders and community stakeholders.
• Participants will come to see that how the community understands and perceives the preparations, and its trust and willingness to cooperate in their implementation, will largely determine whether emergency operations will be successful.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation