The Prepared Community Initiative

We need community input! If you are interested in joining this process, please contact Leigh Mason at 975-9667.

In the spring of 2005, the NMDOH Office of Health Promotion & Community Health Improvement (OHP&CHI) and Office of Health Emergency Management (OHEM) initiated the Prepared Community Initiative. Community Health Councils (CHCs) in nearly every county in New Mexico, and in several tribal communities, are participating in this project, aimed at preparing the Councils to be collaborative partners in health and psychosocial emergency preparedness and response.

The Prepared Community Initiative is based on the core emergency management concept that all response is local. In any disaster, a response begins and ends at the local level. Recent emergencies such as Hurricane Katrina have demonstrated the importance of community members being prepared to meet their own needs for up to 72 hours before state and federal assistance is available.

The importance of local preparedness and response is well recognized. According to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Operations (JCAHO), in Standing Together: An Emergency Planning Guide for America’s Communities, “Whenever or whatever disaster or mass casualty event occurs, community and local response will be key to survival; communities must look to themselves and adjoining communities for answers.”

The Prepared Community Initiative is NOT intended to prepare CHCs to manage disasters and emergencies in their communities. As discussed in the Prepared Community training offered as part of Phase 1 of the Initiative, emergency management is the responsibility of the local Emergency Manager, working collaboratively with the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC). However, Health Councils are an important component of the public health infrastructure, connecting individuals and organizations, and can contribute in important ways to building local emergency preparedness and response capacity.

The New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) has developed a vision of the Prepared Community and recognizes its responsibility to assist communities to attain that vision. The three phases of the Prepared Community Initiative are part of that effort:

• In Phase 1, CHC members and representatives of the local emergency response community participated in the Prepared Community training. Following the training, each CHC prepared a Community Health Emergency Management Profile, including a description of vulnerable population groups and identification of individuals and agencies who work with and could represent those groups.
• In Phase 2, CHC members and other community representatives participated in training on the critical role of Community Outreach before, during and after a disaster or emergency. CHCs are developing outreach networks composed of individuals, organizations, and agencies willing to reach out to others in the community.
• In Phase 3, CHC members and other community representatives will learn about Community Resiliency and Psychosocial Response and work to develop the capacity of the community to survive and recover from a disaster or emergency.

Phase I

Phase II