Introduction to PHEP Resources Library
The resources on this page are designed to assist jurisdictions in planning for the public health emergencies associated with hazards.
Hazard mitigation planning often overlooks public health impacts. Plans rarely document or engage higher-risk populations or those likely to be disproportionately impacted by the hazard, and they seldomly evaluate if health mitigation strategies will effectively reach their intended populations. These resources aim to bring focus to population-level planning for the health impacts of an emergency at the local level.
Region 4AB Planning Process
Over the last few years, communities in the Region 4AB Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) Coalition have undergone a planning process that seeks to identify public health and healthcare risks, populations at risk for disproportionate impacts, and public health mitigation measures associated with priority hazards.
For each hazard examined, municipal webpages and publicly available hazard mitigation plans were reviewed for mitigation measures related to the selected hazard and to document gaps in the mitigation of health effects.
Next, a compendium of best practices for mitigating health effects associated with the hazard was developed. Accompanying the compendium are detailed community profiles that juxtapose community-level data with state and regional data. These profiles help highlight an individual municipality’s unique community, and they provide a starting point for planning by identifying populations likely to be at higher risk or disproportionately impacted. Gaps in mitigation measures and barriers to accessing those mitigation measures drive disproportionate impacts, but population-specific planning can reduce those disparities. To implement population-specific interventions, staff at the local level need to have a working knowledge of their demographics.
To introduce the planning materials to the coalition, Region 4AB has hosted seminars and workshops with local Health Departments and community partners. These workshops have provided training on the hazards, the health effects of the hazards, identifying populations for mitigation planning, and generated feedback on the potential effectiveness of identified mitigation measures. Resources associated with each project are linked on the pages below.
4AB PHEP Resources
Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication