EPIC Exchange: 2019 National Preparedness Month

Hello from CDC’s Emergency Partners Information Connection,

National Preparedness Month (NPM) is recognized each September to promote family and community disaster and emergency planning now and throughout the year. Join CDC’s Center for Preparedness and Response and our FEMA partners from the Ready Campaign for CDC EPIC’s 2019 NPM webinar. The webinar will feature presentations from CDC about its Prepare Your Health web resources and new digital media toolkit, and from the Ready Campaign about their NPM campaign, “Prepared, Not Scared,” and new Ready Kids materials. CDC encourages leaders who are responsible for the safety of others to attend. This includes community leaders, public health workers, emergency responders, school administrators, managers of assisted living facilities, and workplace safety officers. It’s better to be prepared and not need it than to face disaster unprepared. Click here to learn more about this webinar, including continuing education opportunities.

Additional Learning Opportunities and Resources

How to Help Loved Ones in Hurricane-Affected Areas If you have friends, family, or other loved ones in hurricane-affected areas, you can help ensure they stay safe by sending them health and safety information. This toolkit offers different messages in both English and Spanish that you can send via text message, email, or social media. Even if you do not personally know anyone in affected areas, you can still help spread these important messages.

Disasters—Keeping Volunteers, Workers, and Responders Safe Are you helping to clean up, rebuild, or support other response and recovery efforts after a flood, earthquake, storm, fire, or other disaster? If so, then it’s a good idea to be prepared and informed about how you can stay safe and healthy while responding. Watch this presentation from CDC’s Emergency Partners Information Connection and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to learn how to reduce risk from injuries, chemical exposures, environmental hazards, and psychological stressors.

Salvation Army Training Opportunities Preparedness is the first phase of the Emergency Management Cycle. Just as individuals and families must prepare for potential dangers and threats, disaster workers, too, must prepare by participating in training classes. With adult learners in mind, courses are to emphasize group interaction and cooperative learning. Training courses include classes in incident management, canteen operations, food service, emotional and spiritual care, and basic first aid and CPR training. Disaster training courses are rated according to difficulty; the higher the difficulty level, the more complex the knowledge presented. Certain courses may also require prerequisite classes. Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Webinar Please save the date for a rescheduled WASH webinar on Wednesday, September 18, 2019, 2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m. ET, from CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases. The agenda will include presentations on real-life examples of the role of public health in emergency water supply planning, and an introduction to the 2019 Emergency Water Supply Planning Guide (EWSP) to help healthcare facilities prepare for, respond to, and recover from a water supply interruption. If you are dialing into the meeting, conference line 1.866.687.4175 Attendee passcode: 6210397 To join the meeting, go to https://go.foodshield.org/?1Pyk3ODI Type in your full name and log in as guest user, even if you have a FoodSHIELD account