Refugees and emergency preparedness

1. Refugees and emergency preparedness “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” Lucius Annaeus Seneca 1st Century

2. Pandemic and All Hazards preparedness act • PAHPA required DHHS “to integrate the needs of at-risk individuals on all levels of emergency planning, ensuring the effective incorporation of at-risk populations into existing and future policy, planning, and programmatic documents.”

3. Mission of public health preparedness • “to assure that all citizens have knowledge of what to do during a disaster; therefore, we have to consider how we are going to communicate with special needs populations so that they have the opportunity to plan, prepare, and respond to disasters.”

4. Community Resilience • Resilience means the ability to prepare for and adapt to changing conditions and withstand and recover rapidly from disruptions. • Disruptions can originate from • deliberate attacks, • accidents, • or naturally occurring threats or incidents.

5. Immigrant and Refugee Families are At-Risk Populations • When disaster strikes, they are especially vulnerable due to: • isolation, • limited English skills, • and little or no knowledge about information and resources available during emergencies.

6. Cultural Differences • For many of us, knowing what to do in a disaster seems like common sense. • If there is a fire, call 911; • If there is a heat wave, get to a place with air conditioning; • If there is an earthquake, drop to the ground and cover our heads • If the power goes out, we call our utility company. • In some places around the world the correct response may actually be the opposite of what most Americans are trained to do.

8. Issues that will Impact the Refugee Population during an Emergency • notification, • evacuation, • emergency transport, • access to medical care and medications, • access to information.

9. How we communicate with Refugees • Interpreters • Key Community Contacts • Employers • Churches

10. Risk communication • “Effective risk communication involves being able to reach all segments of the affected population, especially persons with limited English proficiency and persons with disabilities, in ways they trust and understand, and to receive information from the public through multiple channels.” National Health Security Strategy, HHS, December 2009 • To do this, a community must know what subgroups make up its population, where the people in these groups live and work, and how they best receive information.

11. Get them involved . . . • Include key community contacts in local emergency planning. • Inform Refugees about mass phone alerting systems. • Maintain communications and contact information for community leaders who can assist in emergency response. • Maintain registries of individuals with disabilities and others with special needs who would be particularly at-risk during an emergency, including plans to shelter-in-place or evacuate. • Show your Refugee population how to have an emergency preparedness plan for their own families.

12. Communicate with your local emergency preparedness. . . • Let your preparedness coordinator know that you are able to help them communicate with the Refugee population • Conduct training for first responders on cultural competency when working with Refugees. • Be part of emergency planning in your community—participate in drills and exercises sponsored by local health departments or Emergency Management. • Consider volunteering for the local Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) (medicalreservecorps.gov) or our state's Emergency System for Advance Registration of Health Professionals (ESAR-VHP) to participate in emergency response. • North Carolina’s volunteer registry is found at https://www.servnc.org/index.php

13. Resources Public Service Announcements: • http://www.echominnesota.org/topics/emergency-preparedness Preparedness materials in different languages: • http://www.ready.gov/translations/ To help first responders provide culturally sensitive care: • https://cccdpcr.thinkculturalhealth.hhs.gov/default.asp

14. Resources Multilingual health information for refugees and their health providers • http://www.rhin.org/ Incorporating vulnerable populations into mass dispensing plans • http://wcphep.org/ Resources for Serving Persons with Limited English Proficiency • http://www.phe.gov/Preparedness/planning/abc/Pages/default.aspx

15. Resources Assistance with planning: • http://www.apctoolkits.com/vulnerablepopulation/ Emergency Communications Toolkit: • http://www.doh.wa.gov/PublicHealthandHealthcareProviders/EmergencyPreparedness/EmergencyCommunicationsToolkit.aspx

16. New Census Bureau Interactive Map Shows Languages Spoken in America • http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/data/language_map.html?eml=gd

18. COIN Community Outreach Information Network (COIN)—a grassroots network of people and trusted leaders who can help with emergency response planning and delivering information to at-risk populations in emergencies. • http://www.orau.gov/SNS/AtRiskTool/

19. “I carry a shower curtain folded up neatly in my wallet, because you never know when you’ll never know.
” ― Jarod Kintz, A Zebra is the Piano of the Animal Kingdom Presented by: Sandra White, R. N. Preparedness Coordinator / Refugee Health Nurse Robeson County Health Department (910) 671-3256 sandra.white@hth.co.robeson.nc.us