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Emergency Response Program building community resilience

McCune

In its effort to build community resilience, San Juan Basin Health continually works to plan, train and exercise for emergencies and disasters in our communities. Emergency Preparedness and Response is a core public health service mandated by the state, and key principles of this are woven into all SJBH programs.

SJBH’s EPR program works to ensure that residents have access to basic everyday necessities not only during an emergency, but also the resources and information needed to withstand, adapt and recover from that emergency as well.

Most recently, SJBH’s role in emergency response was demonstrated by the agency’s involvement in the Gold King Mine spill. This event highlighted the role of local public health in addressing human and environmental health impacts as they relate to the river and the local watershed. In this and other disaster emergencies, SJBH addresses public health concerns in a number of ways including identifying and controlling environmental health hazards, issuing health advisories, waste disposal, disease vectors, food safety and immunizations. SJBH is responsible for maintaining and implementing an Emergency Operations Plan that guides the agency’s response to such incidents.

In an effort to increase community resilience and better communicate with residents regarding the health and safety of the Animas River, SJBH worked with other local municipalities and emergency response agencies to create a local Animas River Alert and Notification Plan. This plan prioritizes and focuses on information-sharing between emergency preparedness and response personnel within the Animas River Watershed to provide information to the community about steps to take if an emergency should arise.

Additionally, SJBH is involved in a long-term monitoring plan in conjunction with Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to determine water quality conditions in the Animas River Basin to assess risks to public health and the environment. Collecting water and sediment data will inform local, regional and state stakeholders in their understanding of current and future watershed health, as well as inform parameters of the Alert and Notification Plan.

Despite the more recent focus on the Gold King Mine event, monitoring and responding to disease outbreaks is the more typical focus of SJBH’s EPR Program. While this type of event occurs infrequently, local public health acts as the lead emergency response agency in these incidents. SJBH would facilitate the ordering, receiving and distribution of necessary medical equipment and supplies for both Archuleta and La Plata counties, as well as communicate with the public in response to any emergency or crisis event that puts the public at risk for disease or negative health outcome. SJBH works with the Centers for Disease Control if necessary, to access the Strategic National Stockpile, which has large quantities of medicine and medical supplies to protect the American public if there is a public health emergency (terrorist attack, flu outbreak and earthquake) severe enough to cause local supplies to run out.

SJBH conducts EPR exercises on a regular basis to identify current gaps and learn new skills. Simple exercises are conducted internally to plan and prepare for outbreak or disaster events, whereas others include public involvement such as the Point of Dispensing exercise that took place at the La Plata County Fairgrounds this past December. PODS allow agencies to realistically test mass dispensing plans and processes. The TDaP POD conducted in December not only allowed SJBH to test those systems, but also performed a public service by providing over 200 TDaP vaccinations to community members.

The SJBH EPR program serves Archuleta, Dolores, La Plata, Montezuma and San Juan counties, and provides support to the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute tribes in its effort to build community resilience through emergency preparedness.

For more information, visit SJBH’s website at: http://sjbhd.org/programs-services/emergency-preparedness/.

Keri McCune, RN, BSN, is Public Health Emergency Preparedness manager with San Juan Basin Health Department.



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