Pandemic influenza planning: Preparing communities with limited resources

To effectively plan for and respond to public health emergencies in rural communities, public health and other health professionals must engage the community at large in the planning process by integrating a broader group of local stakeholders to participate in infrastructure building and rural emergency response planning processes.

Over the course of six months, the USA Center for Rural Public Health Preparedness, in partnership with the Texas Department of State Health Services, assisted thirty-four North Texas counties with limited or non-existent local public health services in Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Planning activities. This project contained three major components: Rural Preparedness Roundtables, Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Planning Technical Assistance, and Table Top Exercises.

Rural Preparedness Roundtables, a strategy to engage and empower community members, brought together the broader group of local stakeholders. This face-to-face discussion served as a catalyst to build stakeholder networks for rural communities, share best practices, and incorporate the broader community voice into pandemic influenza response planning processes.

The USA Center provided each County Judge with a Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Planning template and Resource Guide to assist in their counties' Pandemic Influenza Response planning process. Center Staff were available over the next month to assist counties with creating their Pandemic Influenza Response Plans.

Rural Preparedness Roundtable participants were invited back to participate in a Table Top Exercise (TTX) to test the elements of their counties' Pandemic Influenza Response Plans. The TTX enabled participants to identify gaps and vulnerabilities in each county's plan and make recommendations for plan revisions.