Diversity and Emergency Preparedness
The Texas Health Institute (THI), with support from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, is pleased to present a new, first-of-a-kind toolkit on advancing the preparedness of diverse communities:
Guidance for Integrating Culturally Diverse Communities into Planning and Responding to Emergencies: A Toolkit 
This toolkit intends to achieve at least three goals:
1. To highlight the importance of taking specific actions that recognize and integrate distinct, individual and especially community-focused race, ethnic, culture, and language priorities and perspectives into mainstream emergency preparedness, response and recovery actions;
2. To “ground” efforts to reduce disparities with state-of-the-art leading practices and models, experience, expertise and research that can provide practical guidance for programs and services as well as communities; and
3. To provide for local, state and federal officials information and a specific set of initiative areas that can assist in informing decisions around programs and policies that work to assure effective outreach and engagement of diverse communities in critical emergency strategies.
In all, the content and guidance in the toolkit will offer promise for assisting agencies in working with diverse communities to address a broader set of priorities to improve health and quality of life that are central to effective emergency event strategies and actions.
For further information, see:
Background and History
Publications
Presentations
Mounting evidence suggests that racially and ethnically diverse populations are disproportionately affected by disasters and public health emergencies. While Hurricane Katrina prompted attention to this issue, five years following the tragedy, pervasive inequities in preparedness and response remain as evidenced by greater loss, injury, morbidity and mortality experienced by these populations in recent public health emergencies, such as the 2007 California Wildfires, the 2009 H1N1 Influenza Pandemic and the 2010 Gulf Coast Oil Spill. The increasing awareness of these inequities has prompted federal and state programs as well as many communities across the U.S. to begin to plan for the needs of vulnerable populations and assure greater equity in response to emergencies.
In recognition of these priorities and the continuing need to bring together resources to address them, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health (HHS/OMH) supported the creation of a novel expert group, The National Consensus Panel on Emergency Preparedness and Cultural Diversity , to develop and issue cohesive guidance on integrating diverse populations into planning for and responding to emergencies.
Comprised of premier national, state and local organizations involved in public health and homeland security as well as racial and ethnic community representatives, the Panel convened in 2007 and 2008 to issue a National Consensus Statement , citing the historic inattention to the needs of diverse communities and the importance and urgency for action. They also released eight Guiding Principles that provided the nation’s first blueprint girded in the direct involvement of affected racial and ethnic communities in planning for future disasters.
The Panel was brought together for a third time in Washington, D.C., on October 4-5, 2010 to discuss and issue a first-of-a-kind toolkit with practical guidance and actionable steps for integrating issues around race, culture and language across preparedness and response priorities, including community engagement, vulnerability assessments, risk communication, and training and education. The Panel also identified priorities and strategies for pandemic influenza preparedness as they pertain to diverse communities. The release of these recommendations is forthcoming.
The work of the Panel has been featured nationally and internationally, and was most recently highlighted in Trust for America’s Health’s Annual Report, Ready or Not 2010. An abridged version of the National Consensus Statement was also embedded in the 2009 Institute of Medicine’s report entitled, Guidance for Establishing Crisis Standards of Care for Use in Disaster Situations . In addition, the Panel has garnered state interest and involvement. For example, The California Endowment provided support to Dennis Andrulis, PhD, MPH, Senior Research Scientist at THI, to conduct a study of California’s state and local preparedness initiatives for diverse populations to identify successes and gaps as well as offer guidance for future priorities and programs. Click here to access this study. Furthermore, the work of the Panel has been presented and published in various Canadian venues.
PUBLICATIONS
• Andrulis DP, Siddiqui NJ, Purtle J. “Integrating Racially and Ethnically Diverse Communities into Planning for Disasters: The California Experience.” Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness. October 5, 2011
• Siddiqui NJ, Andrulis DP, Purtle J. “Ethnicity and Minority Status Effects on Preparedness ." Encyclopedia of Disaster Relief. K. Bradley Penuel, Matthew Statler, J. Geoffrey Golson (Eds.) SAGE Publications. January 2011.
• Purtle J, Andrulis DP, Siddiqui NJ “Language Issues and Barriers .” Encyclopedia of Disaster Relief. K. Bradley Penuel, Matthew Statler, J. Geoffrey Golson (Eds.) SAGE Publications. January 2011.
• Siddiqui NJ, Andrulis DP and Purtle J. Expert Perspective: Building a National Strategy for Advancing Preparedness Programs and Policies for Racially and Ethnically Diverse Communities. Ready or Not 2010: Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters and Bioterrorism, Pgs 45-46. December 2010. Released by Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
• Andrulis DP, Siddiqui NJ and Purtle JP. California's 2011 Emergency Preparedness Efforts for Culturally Diverse Communities: Status, Challenges and Directions for the Future . January 2009. Drexel University School of Public Health’s Center for Health Equality. Supported by The California Endowment.
• PSD Research. Public Emergencies and Diverse Communities . Public Sector Digest, October 2009. (Canadian publication featuring the National Consensus Statement and Guiding Principles).
• Andrulis DP, Siddiqui NJ, Purtle J. "Integrating Language, Culture, and Community into Planning for and Providing Effective Emergency Health Care during Disasters: Challenges and Opportunities form the California Experience." Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 2009; 24(2):s133-s134.
• Andrulis DP, Siddiqui NJ, and Gantner JL. “Preparing Racially and Ethnically Diverse Communities for Public Health Emergencies .” Health Affairs, 2007; Sep-Oct;26(5):1269-79.
• 2011 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting. Oral Presentation on: “Engaging and Planning for Racially and Ethnically Diverse Communities in a Pandemic: Recommendations of the National Consensus Panel on Emergency Preparedness and Cultural Diversity.” Oct 29 – Nov 2, 2011, Washington, DC.
• 2011 National Council on Interpreting in Health Care. Oral Presentation on: “Language and Risk Communication as the Centerpiece in Preparing for and Responding to Emergency Events.” New Orleans, LA, May 2011.
• 2011 Webinar for the California Primary Care Association on “Integrating Culturally Diverse Communities into Planning for and Responding to Emergencies.” April 26, 2011, 10am-11am PDT.
• 2011 Multidisciplinary Empowerment and Training Alliance’s (META) Meeting on Disaster Preparedness in Underserved Communities. Invited guest presentation entitled, “National Perspective: Planning for and Responding to Diverse Populations: Recommendations of the National Consensus Panel on Emergency Preparedness and Cultural Diversity.” University of Tampa, Florida, March 25, 2011.
• 2011 Public Health Preparedness Summit in Atlanta, GA: Panel Session on “Planning for and Responding to Diverse Populations: Recommendations of the National Consensus Panel on Emergency Preparedness and Cultural Diversity”. Featured Panelists: Dr. Dennis Andrulis, Dr. Umair Shah, and Guadalupe Pacheco. Moderator: Nadia Siddiqui.
• 2010 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting: Panel Session on “Finding Common Ground: Health Equity, Social Justice, and Public Health Preparedness” . Featured Panelists: Dr. Dennis Andrulis, Dr. Umair Shah, Dr. Linda Rae Murray and Ana Marie Jones. Moderator: Nadia Siddiqui.
• 2010 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting: Poster on “From theory to practice: Engaging and planning for racially and ethnically diverse communities in emergency preparedness”.
• 2010 National Conference on Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations: Oral Session on “Adapting an Organizational Cultural Competence Self-Assessment Tool for Emergency Preparedness” (Building on Recommendations of Toolkit on Diversity and Preparedness).
• 2010 Integrated Medical, Public Health Preparedness and Response Training Summit: Oral Presentation on “Value of Consensus: Creating Concerted Strategies to Advance Workforce Training for Diverse Communities.”
• 2010 Third National Emergency Management Summit Meeting: Oral Session on “Building Bridges: Strategies for Engaging Racially and Ethnically Diverse Communities in Emergency Preparedness.”
• 2009 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting: “Making up for history: advancing programs and policies to integrate culturally diverse communities into public health emergency preparedness through public-private sector initiatives”
• 2009 National Conference on Community Preparedness: “Realizing the Potential of Volunteer Agencies to Prepare Culturally Diverse Communities for Public Health Emergencies”
• 2009 National Emergency Management Summit: “A Review of California’s Emergency Preparedness Efforts for Racially and Ethnically Diverse Communities”
• 2009 Office of Minority Health National Leadership Summit. Poster: “Promising Practices and Strategies to Advance Emergency Preparedness in Racially and Ethnically Diverse Communities”
• 2009 Public Health Preparedness Summit: “Challenges and Strategies for Incorporating Racial/Ethnic Minorities in Public Health Preparedness.”
• 2009 World Congress on Disaster and Emergency Medicine: “Integrating Language, Culture and Community into Planning for and Providing Effective Emergency Health Care During Disasters: Challenges and Opportunities from the California Experience”
• 2008 National Conference on Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations: Peer-to-peer session on “Lessons Learned and Practical Strategies for Integrating Diverse Communities into Emergency Preparedness”.
• 2008 Presentation before the New Jersey Special Needs Advisory Panel of the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management.
• 2008 Second National Emergency Management Summit: Oral Presentation on “Advancing Programs and Policies to Integrate Racially and Ethnically Diverse Communities into Emergency Preparedness.”
• 2007 First National Emergency Management Summit: Oral Presentation on “Emergency Preparedness for Racially and Ethnically Diverse Communities.”
For additional information, please contact:
Nadia Siddiqui, MPH
Senior Health Policy Analyst
[ nsiddiqui@texashealthinstitute.org ]
