Community Planning Toolkit to Prepare Vulnerable Populations for Emergencies

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, attention was called to the great disparity in emergency preparedness planning for vulnerable populations. While the import of vulnerable populations planning is now recognized, communities remain challenged as how to specifically address the diversity of needs in an emergency. There is a demand for recommendations with regards to evacuation and sheltering, decontamination, mental health support, risk communication, and continuity of care. During fall 2006, the Harvard School of Public Health Center for Public Health Preparedness (HSPH-CPHP) conducted focus groups with representatives of community-based organizations and providers serving vulnerable populations in Boston, to garner information concerning issues and barriers that may be experienced by these populations in an emergency and to generate recommendations for remedial action items.

Based on a conceptual model developed utilizing information compiled from focus groups, HSPH-CPHP designed and implemented a survey, for representatives of organizations serving deaf and hard of hearing, mobility-impaired, and visually-impaired populations, that prioritizes issues to be addressed and strategies for implementation of action items. Following the survey, HSPH-CPHP will convene five advisory groups, each group focusing on one aspect of emergency planning (evacuation etc). Groups will be composed of surveyed individuals and additional service providers including community-based organizations, and local public health and public safety representatives. The groups will review survey results, relevant literature, and known and imagined strategies for vulnerable populations planning, in order to issue guiding principles for community preparedness. A community toolkit for vulnerable populations planning will result from these efforts.