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Disaster Preparedness

Disaster Preparedness

A family collects water outside

The impact of disasters and other major weather events can vary greatly.

These events amplify preexisting struggles that many in our community have. This is particularly evident during major disasters. Some members of our communities – due to individual characteristics including geographic remoteness, language, heritage, poverty, medical issues, among others – are frequently unaccounted for when a disaster strikes. Communities need to prepare for disasters, and build plans for response and recovery, with all members of the community brought to the table. MCN’s disaster preparedness initiative seeks to provide training, technical assistance, resources, and strategies to communities and community health centers (CHCs) for hyperlocal, hyper-inclusive responses to major natural events.

Our History Working with Communities Affected by Disasters

MCN facilitates robust CHC emergency management planning; builds community engagement by bringing in community leaders to develop, review, and strengthen emergency action plans; and identifies and engages vulnerable populations like farmworkers, children, and isolated rural residents. But we aren’t just bringing partners together; we’re enabling stronger, healthier communities. For example, we’ve learned plans must address the mental health and psychosocial needs of both community members and CHC staff impacted by disasters. One tactic we offer is a natural hazards intervention to build tools and resources for educating CHCs on the screening, monitoring, and evaluation of the different aspects that need to be assessed when it comes to major disasters including mental health and the ability to recover and prepare for new events. 

Community Health Centers Lead Emergency Response

We activate our 40 years of providing training and technical assistance to CHCs to guide them in expanding their reach to the most vulnerable. CHCs, with emergency infrastructure including generators and with mandated emergency plans already in place, can be key anchors to steady the community as the focal point for community mobilization during and after a major event. While CHCs are tasked to prepare for typical emergencies within their walls, our new efforts: 1) pull clinicians out into the community and prioritize recognition of and care for those who are often overlooked or have limited care access; and 2) acknowledge natural hazards and expand emergency preparedness to adapt to changes in the environment or the population.

Best Practices: How we support communities and health centers in addressing disasters and major events.

MCN PR team

Training and Technical Assistance Projects

MCN’s high-impact training and technical assistance projects focus on environmental-related worker exposures. MCN facilitates training for CHCs and the communities they serve to support environmental exposure education, disaster preparedness, recovery, and response with the overall goal of improving worker health and safety. MCN organizes and facilitates trainings in the US and its Caribbean territories for clinical staff, social workers, and outreach workers in CHCs. In addition, we provide direct training to workers to address environmental-related exposures like heat and provide resources to increase and build capacity in addressing environmental risks at work. Since 2018, MCN has facilitated over 700 education and technical assistance encounters addressing disasters and prevention strategies used to protect workers and other vulnerable communities, reaching over 13,000 participants and trainees in 38 states in the continental US, Puerto Rico, and US Virgin Islands.

  

Environmental Education

Environmental Education to Engage Rural Communities

In one example of MCN's work within the community, MCN fostered student and community engagement in disaster preparedness in low-income communities in an isolated, underserved area of Puerto Rico. We used environmental education as a community-engaging tool to build a path to promote health, and emergency preparedness through a community mobilization lens. 

Read more on MCN's Environmental Education page.

Our Research: Increasing Resilience

MCN is exploring the impact of major events and public health emergencies on agricultural workers and their families in central Puerto Rico. Understanding the impact and the social factors influencing them is essential for policymakers, clinicians, worker groups, and other stakeholders. Through these projects, we are working with CHCs, schools, and community leaders in the region to address the gaps, needs, and challenges when implementing emergency resiliency initiatives. In addition, knowing the effect of recent emergencies and disasters on agricultural workers’ children can help them design evidence-based intervention strategies, and prevention programs. 

 
  Learn more about MCN's research:

Learn More About Our Efforts

Peer-Reviewed Publications 2022

Other Resources

Advocacy and Media

Learning Opportunities