Introduction
There is an urgent need for a disaster recovery strategy for the Vila Health Community in the region. The residents of the town were caught off guard by an unforeseen calamity. Their sole plan was a notebook full of resources, but nothing tangible about what to do when disaster hit. After speaking with those who were directly affected by the train wreck, it became clear that a contingency plan was required. As part of this catastrophe recovery plan, the Vila Health community of 8,300 people will be taken into consideration, including those with special needs due to age, families in financial distress, homelessness, unemployment, disabilities, and non-white minorities. The Valley City Regional Hospital, which has 105 beds, is one of the few resources available to the Vila Health Community, and as a result, outside resources such as equipment, supplies, and additional staff must be investigated. Individuals must be held responsible for their part in implementing a strategy to reduce health disparities and increase access to resources following a disaster. Healthy People 2020’s MAP-IT framework is used to develop an implementation strategy that incorporates interdisciplinary collaboration and communication that will be critical to the success of this plan.
The goals and objectives of the recovery effort are derived from the goals and objectives of Healthy People 2020 and Healthy People 2030. To “enhance and sustain communities’ capacities to prevent, protect against, reduce the consequences of, respond to and recuperate from events with detrimental impacts.” “Preparedness” is the goal. Community health assessment and improvement planning initiatives are intended to “examine the impact of their allocation and partnership with the community needs and health outcomes”. A well-thought-out strategy necessitates a clear set of objectives. A year from now, the Vila Health Disaster Recovery Plan should be ready to go into action.
The MAP-IT Model: This strategy will be produced using the MAP-IT framework developed by Healthy People 2020. One of the first things to do is mobilize community partners; two is to assess community needs; three is a plan for lessening health inequalities; four is to implement a plan to meet the 2020 and 2030 goals, and fifth is to track community progress. Preparedness for disaster recovery is made easier using this structure.
Mobilize
As part of a disaster recovery plan for the Vila community, the first stage is to mobilize all relevant stakeholders. In the meantime, here are a few things to mull over: What are the coalition’s goals and objectives? I want to bring people together for a variety of reasons, who should be a part of the team? Last but not least, who is my community’s possible partners (organizations and companies)? As a first step, form a coalition of essential individuals and organizations (Greenberg et al., 2019). In other words, you’re on the lookout for partners who care about building healthy communities and who are willing to contribute to the effort, i.e., a goal of broad representation (Smith & Nguyen, 2021). This is a good starting point. The next step is to assign roles and duties to each of your team members because it will help to keep the coalition’s partners engaged. A few examples of what partners can do are: provide community participation through meetings, events, and advisory groups; build educational and training programs and deliver them; lead fundraising efforts and policy campaigns; and provide technical support in planning or evaluation. According to the Healthy People 2020 initiative, healthcare teams, the city, and local government authorities must work together to mobilize (Greenberg et al., 2019). A particular strategy for emergency room catastrophe preparedness would need to be developed by an administrator at the Vila Health Community, such as an Associate Director for Hospital Operations. Staff nurses may be assigned the responsibility of notifying or coordinating with emergency medical services (EMS) to set up a drop-off system for patients, crowd control security, and, if necessary, law enforcement notification. Staffing employees will assess emergency staffing needs. Create a triage strategy and assign it to a lead ER physician, who will then hand it over to the charge nurse for implementation. To ensure that the Director of Facilities has enough supplies in the event of a crisis, have the chief financial officer contact the local city, government, and disaster team to find out what resources are needed (McDonnell, 2020).
Assess
Following the mobilization of stakeholders in the community, a comprehensive assessment of the community is the next logical step. Who is affected and how are some of the questions to ask and answer? What are our resources? & What are the necessary resources available? After that, examine the community’s needs and assets (resources) to gain a better idea of what you can and can’t do. When determining your priorities, consider practicality, effectiveness, and measurability when working as a coalition to set them. Find out what the community and key stakeholders think to be the most significant concerns. Assessing the needs of the Vila Health Community, particularly the most vulnerable, is critical. Elderly, disabled, deaf, homeless, jobless, in financial distress, and members of non-white ethnic groups make up a significant portion of this neighborhood’s population (McDonnell, 2020).
For example, according to a peer-reviewed article published in the American Journal of Public Health, people who have higher incomes are more likely than those who have lower incomes to be prepared for a disaster. However, people who are minorities or have disabilities are less likely than the general population to trust safety recommendations. As a result of these societal, cultural, and economic obstacles, disaster victims are unable to get the help they need to rebuild their lives and property (Jackson et al., 2021). Preparedness necessitates the development and distribution of additional educational materials and assistance to these populations. Because the homeless require additional support from shelters, a strategy including the employees of those facilities is required. The housing and food costs of those in financial difficulty necessitate support.
The assessment phase of the MAP-IT paradigm relies heavily on collaboration and communication. As a journal of the BMC Public Health, BMC Public Health stresses the need of working together to ensure the safety, readiness, and recovery of all individuals. Vulnerable populations must have a trusting atmosphere, hence a collaborative network among members of the Vila Health Community should be established (Khan et al., 2018). In the event of a disaster, supportive communication can help people locate the services they need. Disturbance preparation can only be developed through effective communication. Efforts to increase communication were judged to have a positive impact on cooperation across the board. A group of volunteers would be formed to ensure that the needs of the most vulnerable members of society are met. To be prepared, this group would receive classes and training (Jackson et al., 2021). Individuals from various backgrounds will be part of the Community Engagement Group. As a result, the execution of the Healthy People 2020 goals and Healthy People 2030 objectives will be more likely to succeed because of the diversity of engagement group members.
The Robert T. (SDREA) Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act allows the federal government to provide aid in the event of a declared disaster or emergency. FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) can give financial, technical, and logistical support during emergency occurrences because of health and government policies (Khan et al., 2018). There is both private and state support for individuals in immediate need. Allows disaster victims to get extra help during and after a crisis.
Plan
In this section, questions to ask and answer include: What is our mission? Do we need to do anything else to get there? So how will we know when we’ve accomplished our goal?” To come up with a plan to reduce health disparities in the community, this question needs to be explored closely. It’s an excellent strategy if it has defined goals and concrete steps to reach them. It’s okay if your goals differ slightly from those outlined in Healthy People 2020 so long as they’re relevant to the work you’re doing. However, keep in mind the points at which you can intervene. Where can you make a difference? Think about how you’ll measure your progress and how you’ll know if you’ve achieved your goals. There must be a defined goal for a recovery strategy to be successful. Health and safety in the event of a disaster will be improved and the recovery effort will be improved following 2020 and 2030 goals and objectives for healthy people.
Implement
Put the strategy into action. An effective disaster recovery plan can be achieved by community engagement, prioritizing medical and non-medical needs, and working with health and government policies. Start by creating a comprehensive work plan that outlines specific activities to be taken, assigns responsibility for them, and establishes a timeframe and/or deadline (Savoia et al., 2017). A single point of contact may be necessary to guarantee that all parties are on board with the work plan and that everything gets done. Be sure to distribute duties among the members of the alliance. Don’t forget to check in with yourself: Check-in frequently with current partners to see if they have any ideas or issues, and bring in new partners whenever possible.
Track
Keep track of the schedule. For the CDC, it is critical to identify the reasons and objectives for reaching out to members of the Vila Health Community. The first set of persons to be followed up on should be vulnerable groups (Savoia et al., 2017). The key to successful contact tracing is to enable others to discover the resources they need while also supporting them, so use the plan that involves community collaboration as a resource to reach out to these folks. Members of the community engagement group will be identified to assist those who are in need during and after a disaster.
Conclusion
A catastrophe recovery strategy is beneficial to the Vila Health Community. As a result, everyone will be able to contribute to the recovery effort to the fullest extent possible.There will be improved health outcomes, better access to resources, and better recovery. In addition, disaster recovery plans are vital for all health care facilities, regardless of their size or location. After a crisis occurs, the health organization business can continue its normal operations. Community members will have better access to health care if they have a recovery plan in place, which will reduce health disparities. An effective disaster recovery plan will assist the Vila community to realize their potential, mobilize and assess their resources, plan how to utilize their resources, and lastly implement and track their progress in minimizing disasters.
References
Greenberg-Worisek, A. J., Kurani, S., Rutten, L. J. F., Blake, K. D., Moser, R. P., & Hesse, B. W. (2019). Tracking healthy people 2020 internet, broadband, and mobile device access goals: an update using data from the health information national trends survey. Journal of medical Internet research, 21(6), e13300.
Jackson, D. N., Trivedi, N., & Baur, C. (2021). Re-prioritizing digital health and health literacy in Healthy People 2030 to affect health equity. Health communication, 36(10), 1155-1162.
Khan, Y., O’Sullivan, T., Brown, A., Tracey, S., Gibson, J., Généreux, M.,… & Schwartz, B. (2018). Public health emergency preparedness: a framework to promote resilience. BMC public health, 18(1), 1-16.
McDonnell, S. (2020, April). Other dark sides of resilience: Politics and power in community-based efforts to strengthen resilience. In Anthropological Forum (Vol. 30, No. 1-2, pp. 55-72). Routledge.
Savoia, E., Lin, L., Bernard, D., Klein, N., James, L. P., & Guicciardi, S. (2017). Public health system research in public health emergency preparedness in the United States (2009–2015): actionable knowledge base. American journal of public health, 107(S2), e1-e6.
Smith, G. P., & Nguyen, M. T. (2021). University-Public Partnerships for Disaster Recovery: Promoting Community Resilience Through Research, Teaching, and Engagement. Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship, 14(1), 4.