Projects under way to bring public into bioterror planning
Projects under way to bring public into bioterror planning
Asked to control a smallpox outbreak
The public must be brought into bioterrorism and mass casualty planning if cooperation and calm are to prevail after the incident, reports the Center for the Advancement of Collaborative Strategies in Health at New York Academy of Medicine.
Noting that current planning efforts may fail if they ignore the above advice, the center issued a September 2004 report titled "Redefining Readiness: Terrorism Planning Through the Eyes of the Public."
The center now is engaged in a series of demonstration projects to see if public involvement can indeed strengthen bioterror response. Begun last year and slated to continue through Jan. 31, 2007, the center is working with residents, schools, businesses, and government agencies in four sites around the country to demonstrate how the important benefits of public engagement in terrorism/ emergency preparedness planning can be achieved. The communities that were selected to receive $150,000 grants to participate in the demonstration projects include:
- the city of Carlsbad and South Eddy County, NM;
- the Humboldt Park neighborhood on the near northwest side of Chicago;
- the Eastside neighborhood in Savannah, GA;
- Choctaw, McCurtain, and Pushmataha counties in southeast Oklahoma.
Working locally and together they will develop strategies to control a smallpox outbreak effectively. In addition, they will make it possible for the maximum number of people to shelter in place by developing safe haven plans in work sites, schools, and shops that family members have confidence in. The demonstration sites will benefit even if a smallpox or dirty bomb explosion never occurs in their community.
The response strategies developed in the project will help protect community residents in the event of other related emergencies, such as pandemic flu, SARS, chemical spills, and electrical blackouts. In addition, the communities will be able to use the public engagement practices they develop in the project to improve their responses to disasters they have experienced in the past, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods.
While the demonstration sites will be working locally, their work should have a much broader reach, the center states. Because of the involvement of government agencies and officials, the strategies that demonstration neighborhoods develop will benefit everyone in the city. Moreover, working together, the demonstration sites will be developing model plans and public engagement practices that many other communities around the country can adapt and use. That will be possible because the sites will be working in places ranging from very rural areas to big cities, and will be learning how to involve a broad range of people, including African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, and Caucasians.
(Editor’s note: For more on the projects go to the center’s web site at www.cacsh.org/index.html.)
The public must be brought into bioterrorism and mass casualty planning if cooperation and calm are to prevail after the incident, reports the Center for the Advancement of Collaborative Strategies in Health at New York Academy of Medicine.Subscribe Now for Access
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