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AFD - Readymom

sharon sanders

sharon sanders

Editor-in-Chief & President
The Readymoms At ACHA




# 2051



http://afludiary.blogspot.com/




In less than an hour I'll be back on the road again, headed to Orlando for the final day at the American College Health Association's annual meeting where I am helping Dr. Susan Chu with the Readymom's Display.


After setting up our booth (# 422 if you are stopping by) on Wednesday, the exhibition opened at 7am yesterday morning and ran till 4pm. We are one of 120 booths at this year's event.


The response to our display was, frankly, very gratifying.


Dr. Chu and I talked to a steady parade of college health care people the entire day. Many stayed for 10, sometimes as long as 20 minutes. We received excellent feedback and will come away from this event with a better understanding of some of the problems they face preparing for a pandemic.

We do it all over again today, although the exhibition closes at 1pm today.

The Readymom's website is currently under construction, and you can't get in right now, but in a couple of weeks they hope to have it back up with toolkits you can download (free, of course) to help you, your family, or your school prepare for a pandemic.

I'll have more on the ACHA event this weekend.

Below are some low resolution pics of some of the display materials we are using. These graphics are readable, but just barely. There is more information on this event available on the Flu Wiki.





posted by FLA_MEDIC @ 5:24 AM
 
Re: AFD - The Readymoms At ACHA

Re: AFD - The Readymoms At ACHA

Feedback From The ACHA Conference



# 2053



For the past 3 days I've spent most of my time in Orlando helping the Readymom's Alliance with their booth at the ACHA (American College Health Association) annual meeting. Wednesday was `setup day', where we put together our booths and displays, while Thursday and Friday were exhibition days.

The Readymom's Alliance, for those that don't know, is a volunteer, grassroots organization comprised mostly of moms, but with a few dads as well, who are working on ways to encourage pandemic awareness and preparedness for individuals, families, and students.


Although I'm not officially a Readymom, I've long been a supporter of their work and I was delighted and honored that Dr. Susan Chu, executive director of the Readymoms, asked me to help with this project.


The Readymom's website is currently offline, but it will return an a couple of weeks, with a new design and toolkits you can download and use for free.
​

The toolkit we were highlighting at the ACHA conference is this poster geared towards college students, urging them to:

  • make a travel plan- know how you would get home in a pandemic
  • have some emergency supplies under the bed
  • get their flu shots each year and practice good hygiene
  • learn more about pandemic influenza.
This poster was just part of a larger display.



(Low resolution version - Click to enlarge)



We were very fortunate that Anita Barkin of the ACHA mentioned our booth in one of her presentations on Wednesday, so a great many people came to the exhibition hall in search of us.

Starting at 7am on Thursday morning, and for the next two days, hundreds of people would stop by our booth - many of them doctors, nurse practitioners, and nurses. All were involved in some way with college health care issues, and some of them were on their school's pandemic planning committee.


The college student toolkit, along with a list of low cost, easy to prepare foods that a student could keep in a box under their beds, garnered complements from just about everyone who saw them. Many of our visitors left their email addresses with us so we could notify them when the toolkits would be online.
​

I was fortunate enough to talk at length to scores of college health professionals over those two days. Sometimes one on one, and sometimes with small groups of 2 or 3.


The average conversation lasted, I'd guess, about 10 minutes. And as I listened, a recurring theme emerged.

First, nearly everyone I talked to was keenly aware of the pandemic threat, and they took that threat very seriously.

Second, most schools are at least working on a pandemic plan, and a few have already held pandemic drills. Some of the smaller schools have even put together `pandemic kits' for students and staff.

All good, but there was also a downside; a near universal lament by the health care professionals who visited our booth.
​
We were told that many college administrators have been slow to accept the seriousness of the pandemic threat, and of fears that some may be reluctant to close their schools at the first signs of a severe pandemic. No one wants to be seen as `alarmist', or as `over-reacting'.

This obviously is a source of worry and frustration for those whose job it would be to care for students in a pandemic.

Depending on the originating point, the CFR (Case Fatality Ratio), and the rate of spread, we may have weeks of advance warning about the next pandemic. At least that's the hope. But we may not get that lucky. With modern airline travel, a virus can travel halfway around the world in 24 hours.
​
The logistics of getting millions of students home on short notice, and within a limited safe `window of time', will be horrendous. Airlines may quickly become booked solid, and at some point, some international borders may be closed.

The earlier schools decide to pull the trigger and dismiss students, the more that will actually get home to the relative safety of their families.


If schools wait too long to close, it would fall upon them to provide for the safety and welfare of thousands of students for several months. And few are equipped to do so.


While many good things are happening on campuses around the country regarding pandemic and emergency preparedness, the picture isn't entirely rosy. Much more needs to be done, and the message needs to filter up from the health care providing level to the administrative level.


It also needs to filter down to the students.

And that is why the Readymom's have put together this toolkit, to get the preparedness message out to the millions of college and university students around the country.

I will announce the re-opening of the Readymom's website on this blog, hopefully in the next couple of weeks. I hope everyone will visit, and download the toolkits.

I'd like to thank the Readymoms, and Dr. Susan Chu, for inviting me to participate in this week's conference.

It was an honor to be a `mom' for a couple of days.

posted by FLA_MEDIC @ 9:19 AM
 
Re: AFD - The Readymoms At ACHA

Re: AFD - The Readymoms At ACHA

Readymom Knows Best



# 3772



Never let it be said that I passed up an opportunity to make an easy blog post.

Earlier today, in response to a blog I wrote yesterday entitled The Flaw In The Ointment, Karen aka Readymom of the Readymoms Alliance left a comment. I felt it should have more exposure than to simply languish amongst the comments to a day-old blog, and so I reproduce it here for all to see.


<dl><dt>ReadyMomsaid... </dt><dt>
</dt><dt>
</dt><dt>
</dt><dt>This has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. In the two years that I have been giving pandemic awareness presentations, I have never had so many people ask me "WHAT do I do?" or "WHAT do I need to GET?", as I have these past couple of months. Answer those questions for the public. It'll be a great start to helping to curb spread.</dt><dt>
They need to know WHAT they should be purchasing NOW, so they have the ability to stay in & away from others when they and/or their family are sick. Having a prepared family ready to implement 'social distancing' when illness strikes will be a great help.</dt><dt>
</dt><dt>
They need to know HOW to prepare and plan for daily disruption. Keeping sick kids from healthy kids.</dt><dt>
I have been recommending my own 'bullet points' to those who attend my presentations:</dt><dl><dt>
? Have alternative child care options, if the adult members still have to report to work. Those options should be for SMALL groups of 6 or less children </dt><dt>
</dt><dt>? Have a well stocked pantry of AT LEAST two-weeks of ADDITIONAL groceries (in addition to what is already in stock in their homes!). </dt><dt>
</dt>
  • Parents may not be able to shop due to illness in their family (taking care of a sick child or the adult member becoming sick)
</dl></dl>

<dl><dl>
  • Stores *may* have reduced hours, if illness starts to affect employees
</dl></dl>

<dl><dl>
  • Families may decide NOT to shop, if the have a child or other family member at home in the ?high risk? category that makes getting the virus more dangerous to their health/life
</dl></dl>

<dl><dl><dt>? Have all the necessary ?over-the-counter? meds necessary for home treatment of the flu already purchased. </dt><dt>
</dt>
  • Hospitals and Doctor offices will be overwhelmed with more serious cases
</dl></dl>

<dl><dl>
  • Stores may run out of the needed meds & supplies (just look at England & Australia for examples of that!)
</dl></dl> <dl><dl>
  • Pharmacies are generally smaller stores than grocery stores and number of employee are smaller. Those stores may have reduced hours due to employee shortage due to illness.
</dl></dl>

<dl><dl><dt>? Have a ?Flu Buddy?, having another adult available to care for the children of their household, should one or both adults in a household become ill. </dt><dt>
</dt><dt>? Looking in on the Elderly or Infirmed </dt><dt>
</dt></dl><dt>At the end of the presentations, people are ALWAYS coming up to me and saying 'Thank you', NOW they know WHAT to DO! ?k</dt></dl> Thank you Karen.

One of the Readymoms Displays.



The Readymoms are a volunteer, grassroots, organization that began a little more than two years ago to spread the pandemic preparedness message.

Over the past two years they have attended many high profile events, such as the APHA (American Public Health Association) Convention in Washington D.C and the Second National Emergency Management Summit, also held in the nation's capital, and the ACHA (American College Health Association) meeting in Orlando.
​
You can read more about their organization, and the free pandemic toolkits they make available, in some of these earlier essays.
The `Flu Buddy? concept is one that I?ve personally been pushing since about 2007, and you can find my latest scribe on the subject in my sidebar:



Karen, aka Readymom has taken that essay and massaged it a bit (and improved it, I think) and has posted it on her SCRIBD account, where anyone can download it for free.


She also has a document, and a powerpoint presentation on Pandemic Parenting also available for free downloading.

And while I?m at it, I might as well remind my readers of the resources available at Get Pandemic Ready.


GetPandemicReady.org is a terrific web resource for preparedness information created by volunteers, and hosted by Nez Perce County, Idaho.

Here you?ll find simple, easy to follow advice on dozens of preparedness subjects including how to stockpile food, build a first aid kit, or staying warm or cool when the power goes out.

Full disclosure: I?ve been a minor contributor to the Get Pandemic Ready website, and have volunteered to assist the Readymoms Alliance in the past.
​
 
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