Public Health Workbook to Define, Locate and Reach Special, Vulnerable, and At-Risk Populations in an Emergency

OVERVIEW

Following disasters in the United States, public health and
emergency planners have assessed human service needs and
issues that were met or unmet before, during, and after the
crises. A primary lesson learned in the aftermath of 9/11, the
anthrax attacks that followed, widespread power outages in the
Northeastern United States, hurricanes in the South, mudslides
in the West and diseases such as SARS and West Nile Virus is that
traditional methods of communicating health and emergency
information often fall short of the goal of reaching everyone in
a community. Those with the greatest needs and greatest risk
often are outside the channels of mainstream communication.

Preparedness and response require communication activities
with the capacity to reach every person. But to do this, a
community must know what sub-groups make up their
population, where the people in the groups live and work,
and how they best receive information. While that may seem
like a statement of the obvious, research indicates that
although significant accomplishments have been achieved in
certain areas of the United States and different states and
community organizations are constantly at work on this issue,
many jurisdictions and regions have not comprehensively
defined or located their special populations.

This Workbook provides a process that can support state, local,
and tribal planners as they advance in their efforts to reach all
populations – and specifically, special populations – in day-to-
day communication and during crisis or emergency situations.

While the designation “special populations” has acquired
broad usage nationally as a term that distinguishes
populations that are hard-to-reach, vulnerable, or otherwise
grouped for purposes of description, public health
professionals recognize that no one term satisfactorily
characterizes such multiple groups of individuals. In disaster
preparedness and response, elements of the following
definition are in use in many health departments nationwide:
groups whose needs are not fully addressed by traditional
service providers or who feel they cannot comfortably or
safely access and use the standard resources offered in
disaster preparedness, relief, and recovery. They include, but
are not limited to, those who are physically or mentally
disabled (blind, deaf, hard-of-hearing, cognitive disorders,
mobility limitations), limited or non-English speaking,
geographically or culturally isolated, medically or chemically
dependent, homeless, frail/elderly, and children. (Pennsylvania
Department of Health: Special Populations emergency
Preparedness Planning. http://www.dsf.health.state.pa.us/
health/cwp/view.asp?a=171&Q=233957 )

Conversations with public health and emergency
management professionals suggest that there is no
unproblematic or universally accepted term for special
populations. In different areas of the country and for
various populations, some terms are acceptable that are
unacceptable elsewhere or for others. Indeed, a population
can be “special” based not only on the characteristics they
share, but on circumstances. For example, in the recovery
period after widespread emergency, many people may be
destitute, homeless, sick, or have other challenges that
leave them vulnerable to being outside mainstream
communications in ways they were not before the disaster.

No matter the terminology, the intent for public health
planning, especially for widespread emergencies, is inclusive.
The goal is to assure that every person in a community has and
understands, the information needed to prepare, cope, and
recover when health emergencies hit.

This Workbook is designed to provide an approach to
inclusive planning that will offer time-saving assistance to
state, local, and tribal public health agencies and other
planners. The Workbook is a research-based approach that
will help public health and emergency planning professionals
Define, Locate and Reach special populations in their own
communities.

The process laid out in this Workbook was developed on a
base of information acquired from a review of published
materials and from interviews with public health
professionals, nonprofit organization leaders, government
and quasi-government officials, emergency and public safety
personnel, educators, faith leaders, neighborhood leaders,
elected and appointed representatives, and others. The Case
Studies and Resources appendices highlight some important
work being done in the field. Other significant efforts may
be underway that were not included in this Workbook
simply because information about them was not readily
available at the time of the research effort.

Public Health Workbook to Define, Locate and Reach Special, Vulnerable, and At-Risk Populations in an Emergency - (134 page .PDF file)

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/workbook/pdf/ph_workbook_draft.pdf