AFD - Community Preparedness - A NET Gain For Your Community

[sharon sanders]

A NET Gain For Your Community



# 2099

http://afludiary.blogspot.com/

Submitted for your consideration: a framework for involving community volunteers in helping at the neighborhood level during a disaster.

​

Produced by the Lewiston - Nez Perce County Office of Emergency Management, and the Idaho North Central District Health Department - this 34 page PDF file provides an excellent template for any community to begin creating their own neighborhood disaster response.

NET, or Neighborhood Emergency Teams, are designed for an `all threats' response. Prime among those, however, is the threat of a pandemic or other communicable disease.

The ability of every community to mount a daily, door-to-door check of its citizens during a prolonged disaster such as a pandemic will be paramount if the maximum number of lives are to be saved. For most communities, volunteers will be needed.

To that end, an organized and sanctioned response is desirable.

Nez Perce County also hosts the GET PANDEMIC READY website, a valuable resource with dozens of small PDF files providing prepping advice. Highly recommended.
(Disclaimer: I was a minor participant in the creation of this site).
​

What follows is just a snippet from theNET guidebook, available as a PDF from the Nez Perce county web server.

First, the rationale for the creation of NET Teams, followed by the recommended `checklist' that should be followed when NET teams visit homes in a neighborhood.

The ?Neighborhood Emergency Teams? (NET) guidebook which follows is one tool for your consideration. We think of it as an essential fallback resource in the hierarchy of plans.

Most jurisdictions have an ?Emergency Operations Plan.? Some jurisdictions have departmental contingency plans to continue operations when business is disrupted for an extended period. The NET guidebook is a backup to contingency plans.

As designed, the booklet is used after a disaster declaration, by paired teams (city/county employee and a volunteer) who visit residents in a pre-designated area to address basic needs. This is public safety directly at the individual, family and neighborhood level. The NET guidebook is an all-hazards document, for use as needed in an event of national significance.

The NET guidebook can also be used pre-disaster both to help families prepare and to build community resilience. This is an excellent opportunity for emergency management to partner with other agencies, such as public health, for pre-pandemic community outreach.
Candidate volunteers may be from Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) and Medical Reserve Corps (MRC).



MASTER CHECKLIST
​

NOTE: Personal Protection MUST be worn by each team member. See the back of this booklet for procedures.

NOTE: Maintain a separation of six feet between you and residents you visit. Also maintain separation between yourself and your partner. Remain outdoors.

NOTE: Neighborhood Emergency Teams will always make visits in pairs. NO EXCEPTIONS.

NOTE: This manual and checklists are only to be used for pre-pandemic community outreach or upon authorization of City/County officials after a disaster declaration:

? For incorporated cities, authorization is from the Mayor or senior elected official.

? For the remainder of Nez Perce County, authorization is from the County Commissioners through the Office of Emergency Management.



____ 1. Introduce yourself as a Neighborhood Emergency Team member.

? Display identification if available.
? Let residents know that you live here, you are their neighbors, and you are concerned, as their neighbors, about their welfare.

____ 2. Briefly discuss WHAT has happened and WHY you are there.

? Do not disclose information about other families? situations. Respect privacy.
? Communicate status of healthcare system and what is known about electricity, municipal water, communications, food delivery, etc.
? Stick to facts and events, not rumors.

If available hand out copies of "Stay at Home Toolkit" and topics from www.getpandemicready.org. Supplement with the tabbed checklists in this booklet.


____ 3. Do you have an emergency radio? Emergency information is provided on all local stations.



____ 4. Are you able to stay here safely for [appropriate time period...initially, the next three days].


____ 5. Do you have an emergency source of heat, or do you need information about your emergency heating options?

? Review ?Heat & Light? Section as appropriate.
? Followup: Do you know what to do to help prevent freezing pipes?
​

____ 6. Does anyone have flu symptoms or other health issues?

? If not done in advance, provide copy of ?Good Home Treatment of Flu.?
? If any household member has flu, provide ORS packets, if available (14 packets per household member) and review importance of staying hydrated.
? Does anyone have special needs for medications?
? Is there a need for help ? pregnant woman going into labor, very ill or injured person?



____ 7. Are you able to stay clean and manage waste disposal (toilet, etc.).

? Review ?Hygiene & Waste? Section as appropriate.


____ 8. Do you have enough water and food?

? Review ?Food? and ?Water? Sections as appropriate.


____ 9. What is your most pressing concern?


____ 10. Is there anyone we can contact?
? to come stay with you (especially elderly, if living alone)
? work notification
? notify relatives


____ 11. (If pandemic confirmed in this area) Has anyone died?


____ 12. A resilient community is based on secure individuals and families. We will be working with you and your neighbors to find ways that you can safely help each other out. In preparation for this, please think of ways you can help:

? Room (suitable for temporary isolation/quarantine)
? Food
? Water or water purification
? Childcare
? First aid skills, baby information, breastfeeding advice, childbirth help
? Walkie talkie or phone
? Neighborhood patrols: When we?re not here, you can help by watching out for your neighbors. Be sure to stay at least six feet away from each other, to minimize chances of becoming sick.


____ 13. If you have a life-threatening emergency that is NOT the flu, AND the phones are not working, send someone to the nearest fire station.

____ 14. We will check back at least daily and will provide any new information that we have.


____ 15. We will be patrolling regularly in the neighborhood.

? If you need us to contact you before our next scheduled check-in with you, please tie this orange ribbon on your doorknob, and we will stop by.
? If you prefer no contact, please tie the green ribbon on your doorknob.
​

This PDF also contains information on emergency heating, sanitation, and cooking, among other subjects. Some of the information provided is Nez Perce County specific, but much is universally applicable.
​

Lewiston-Nez Perce County, Idaho is doing what every community should be doing. They are actively educating their residents about the pandemic threat, teaching them the skills they will need to survive it, and encouraging citizen volunteers to help in a disaster.

Lewiston-Nez Perce County Idaho is lucky to have people like Melvin Johnson, Director of their office of Emergency Management, and Carol Morehrle, Director of the North Central Health Department, who worked together to produce this guidebook.

Now that their framework has been published, and made freely available to everyone, it is up to other communities to follow suit.

posted by FLA_MEDIC @ 7:39 AM

 

[sharon sanders]

Re: AFD - Community Preparedness - A NET Gain For Your Community

Lifelines In A Pandemic




# 2101


A severe pandemic could affect a third or more of the world's population over the span of just a few months. As we saw in the pandemic of 1918 -many patients that survived often required a long convalescence.

Weeks, sometimes months.

And to survive the flu, you needed someone to nurse you along. Someone to keep you hydrated, clean, and fed, and to help you with your meds.

Often simple, but life saving, interventions.

Things were different ninety years ago. Most people lived their entire lives very close to where they were born. We were not yet a mobile society. It was common for several generations of a family to all live under the same roof. People knew their neighbors, because often they'd been neighbors all their lives.

The result was that most people had a much stronger social safety net, made up of friends and relatives, than they do today. It was a different world. A different dynamic.

And it likely helped to save lives during the Spanish Flu.

Often neighbors and family members nursed the sick, even at the risk of personal exposure. They brought food and water to affected households. They even took in the children from homes being visited by `the Spanish Lady'.

No, it wasn't universal.

There are stories of people starving in their homes because people were afraid to approach a `sick house'. Undoubtedly there were many who did not receive help from friends or relatives.

But many people did. And that had to have contributed to their survival.

Today, with millions of people either living alone, or as the sole competent caregiver in a household (single parent, guardian, etc.), a large segment of our society is at a significantly heightened risk during a pandemic.
​

The US Census bureau tells us that 27 Million Americans live alone.


But that is only part of the story. Millions more are single parents with small children, or are elderly couples who would have difficulty caring for one another in a crisis, or are caring for an aging or disabled relative.


As we've seen with H5N1, and the Spanish Flu of 1918, a novel influenza virus has the potential - in a matter of hours - to completely disable a healthy adult.

Without competent and diligent care their odds of survival go way down.
​

Hospitals won't be able to take them all in. Not even close. The most optimistic figures I've seen have 10% of those infected being treated in a hospital.

Most pandemic plans figure on only 5%.

We are told repeatedly by the Federal government that each community must prepare for a pandemic, and that individuals bear a good deal of the responsibility to prepare as well.

It is unlikely, in a severe pandemic, that the Federal, State, or local government is going to be able to come to your rescue.
​

The term YOYO (You're On Your Own) is often used on the flu forums to describe how things will be during a pandemic. A slightly cynical, albeit reasonably accurate, appraisal of how many people expect to have to deal with a pandemic.


Michael Leavitt, Secretary of HHS, put it another way:

"Any community that fails to prepare with the expectation that the federal or state government will rescue them will be tragically mistaken." - Michael Leavitt June 08, 2006
​

Unfortunately, many communities are slow to prepare. Money is scarce, and a consensus that this needs to be done now, is lacking.


To get through a severe pandemic we need to change from this concept of YOYO to that of WOOO :


We're On Our Own.

That's right, we need to be thinking in terms of `WE' ; families, friends, and neighbors banding together to survive a pandemic.

Not just individuals or single families.
​

I know it goes against the grain, at least here in America.

We are a mobile society. We rarely know our neighbors like our parents did 40 years ago. We seldom live in the same town where we grew up and where our family is. We tend to go through life with blinders on, at least as far as our neighbors are concerned, simply because it is easier not to get involved.


We've become a nation of isolationists. And I'm as guilty as the next guy.


But during a pandemic, we either reject this modus operandi, or we accept tremendous avoidable losses.


Perhaps, even our own.

Each of us need, in advance, to make `Flu Buddies'. And not just people who live alone, although they are at the greatest risk.


An arrangement with one or more people (or families) that you will come to their aid during a crisis, and that they will come to your's if needed. For most, these `buddies' will probably be family members, good friends, or neighbors.

People we care about.

Although presumably some may be included in your `flu circle' simply because of their proximity to you.

If someone on your `buddy list' gets sick, they will have buddies to help them through it. Someone to fetch medicine, bring food and water, and make sure they take their meds. It could literally save someone's life

And that `someone' could be you. Or maybe your family, if you are incapacitated or dead.


The way I figure it, really good friends and neighbors are exceedingly hard to find. That makes them worth protecting and preserving during a pandemic (or any other crisis), even at some personal risk to yourself.


Now - before a pandemic erupts - you can be `prepping buddies'. Families or friends can sometimes get better deals pooling their resources and buying in bulk. And while you are at it, you can share knowledge as well.


By banding together now, you can help encourage your `flu buddy' to prepare before a crisis arrives. And a `flu buddy' isn't just handy for a pandemic.


We live on a violent planet, with earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and tornados. Bad things happen, often without warning. Having a trusted `buddy' you can call on in an emergency is the world's best insurance.
​

There can be great community strength and resilience if we work together. Cooperation can be a powerful, lifesaving force if we will just unleash it.


Of course, there is a certain amount of personal risk involved in helping a friend or neighbor during a pandemic. You may be exposed to the virus, you may even contract it. If you share food, or water, or medicine . . . you will have less for yourself.

All true.

And it can be a hard sell convincing someone who is healthy to tend to someone with an infectious disease. But there is truly no safe place you can run, no safe place you can hide in a pandemic.

There is risk even if you do nothing to help others.


Using PPE's (masks, gloves), being diligent about handwashing, and limiting direct exposure to the absolute minimum can greatly reduce the chance of infection. The risk is not zero. But it can be mitigated.

The bottom line is - We either put aside these fears, and work together in a crisis, or we accept whatever losses a pandemic brings.
​

No, as an individual, it's true you can't save the world.


But if you are willing to try, you can sometimes save a small piece of it.

posted by FLA_MEDIC @ 3:08 PM